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THE 



EARLY SAXONS; 






OR, THE 



CHARACTER AND INFLUENCE 



SAXON RACE, 

ILLUSTRATED IN A HISTORY OF THE INTRODUCTION 
OF CHRISTIANITY INTO ENGLAND. 



WRITTEN FOR THE AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION, AND 
REVISED BY THE COMMITTEE OF PUBLICATION. 




AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION, 

$tniaacl#)fa : 

No. 146 CHESTNUT STREET. 



I 









Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1812, 
by Herman Cope, Treasurer, in trust for the American Sun- 
day-school Union, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court 
of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 



5~l V 












CONTENTS. 



Page 
Explanatory Remarks 7 

CHAPTER I. 

Great nations should not forget their origin — 
The inheritance of each generation — Our 
debt of gratitude to the good who have lived 
before us 15 

CHAPTER II. 

England at the present day — Her power, 
science, literature ; her influence in the 
world ; her aims 21 

CHAPTER III. 

England two thousand years ago — Roman 
expedition to the island of barbarians . . 32 

CHAPTER IV. 

The island of Britain in ancient times; its 
forests, marshes and lakes — The ancient 
Briton's house, estate, employment — The 



CONTENTS. 



Page 



religion of the ancient Britons — Stone- 
henge — The doom of the oppressors — 
Changes during five hundred years — Chris- 
tianity among the Britons — Roman civili- 
zation — Roman vice 39 

CHAPTER V. 

The scene at Rome — The captives for sale — 
The pious monk — The mission to Bri- 
tain — Discouragements — Arrival — Land- 
ing — Interview with the king — The tree 
planted 59 

CHAPTER VI. 

The Saxons — Their origin — Their relation to 
the present nations of Europe — Their 
idols, worship and religious belief— Their 
courage, strength and ferocity .... 76 

CHAPTER VII. 

The home of the Saxons before they came to 
England — Their manner of life — The state 
of the Britons — Divided, cowardly and 
unfit to defend themselves — The three Sax- 
on vessels — The consequences — The Bri- 
tons, Romans and Saxons compared . . 92 



CONTENTS. 



Page 



CHAPTER VIII. 

The story of the mission resumed — The man- 
ner in which the missionaries laboured — 
Their slender means — Their books — The 
early Saxon meeting-house — The gradual 
growth of Christianity — Its influence on 
the Saxons 110 

CHAPTER IX. 

Caesar and Augustine compared — Their spi- 
rit — Their work — The consequences — The 
destroyer — The planter 120 

CHAPTER X. 

Saxon nations — Their jealousies, wars, mas- 
sacres — Invasion of the Northmen — Their 
conquest and cruelties — Alfred — The sad 
events of his early reign — His retirement 
from the throne — The dawn of a better day 
— His success, character, influence — Con- 
clusion . • 128 

1* 



EXPLANATORY REMARKS, 

The introduction of Christianity into 
Britain, viewed in connexion with its 
wide and far reaching consequences, is 
one of the most interesting events in the 
history of the church. It would be well 
for the cause of truth, if this event were 
always studied in its true light, without 
perverting the great lessons it teaches to 
the purposes of party strife. Ever since 
the Reformation, however, the aspect of 
this portion of history has been tinged with 
controversy. The Papists have claimed 
the credit of first introducing Christianity 
into Britain ; while their opponents, in 
resisting this arrogant claim, have some- 
times neglected to recognise the great 
obligations of the English race to the 
Romish church. The author is not dis- 

7 



8 EXPLANATORY REMARKS. 

posed to enter into this controversy. Opi- 
nion is fast becoming settled in a way that 
will render debate no longer necessary. 
It has been his design, in the following 
pages, to forget, as far as possible, that the 
subject in his hands is a controverted one. 
He has endeavoured to present it in its 
own natural light, without stopping in the 
course of the narrative to reiterate the 
denial of papal claims, or to strengthen 
controverted positions. 

It may be proper, therefore, to bring to- 
gether, in a few explanatory statements, 
his views of the disputed points above 
alluded to. 

In studying the introduction of the 
Christian religion into Britain, as a great 
historical event, shaping the destiny of the 
greatest nation now on earth, our chief 
interest is felt in the conversion of the 
Saxons, through the labours of Augustine 



EXPLANATORY REMARKS. 9 

and his associates, in the sixth century. 
Still, however, the gospel had been 
preached in Britain ages before Augustine 
approached its shores. * 

* The churches of Britain and Ireland have been 
visible societies from the most remote antiquity. We 
read of the existence of Christian churches in Bri- 
tain in the writings of Tertullian, Origen, Eusebius, 
Athanasius and Hilary. 1 Theodoret attributes their 
foundation to the apostles, 2 but however this 
may be, it is at least certain that they were even 
from the second century recognised as a portion of 
the great Christian community, by all churches. 
In the year 314, the Bishops of London, York and 
Lancaster sat, as representatives of the British 
churches, in the synod of Aries, convened by the 
Emperor Constantine, from all the western churches, 
to take cognisance of the Donatist controversy. 3 
In the year 359, the British bishops were present 
at the synod of Ariminum, where bishops from all 
parts of the west were assembled. 4 In the follow- 



1 Tertullian, Cont. Judaeos, c. 7. Origen, in Ezech. horn, 
iv. in Luc. c. 1, hom. vi. Athan. Apologia, Hist. Arian. ad 
monachos. Hilarius Pictav. de Synodis. See also Stilling- 
fleet's Ant. of Br. Churches. Usserii Brit. Eccl. Ant. 

'Theodoret, torn. iv. serm. ix. p. 610. 

3 Sismond. Concilia Gallic, torn. i. p. 9. 

4Sulpicius Severus, Hist. Eccl. lib. ii. 



10 EXPLANATORY REMARKS. 

There were numerous churches and 
thousands of Christian Britons in the 

ing century, the British churches still continued, 
and they were aided, in their efforts to repress the 
Pelagian heresy, by Germanus and Lupus, Bishops 
of Gaul, who were sent for that purpose by the 
Gallican synod, and perhaps with the authority of 
Celestinus, Bishop of Rome. 1 The British churches 
were afterwards subject to severe persecution and 
depression, in consequence of the invasion and sub- 
jugation of England by the heathen Saxons. Chris- 
tianity for a time flourished only in the western 
parts of Britain, but it still continued in some de- 
gree visible even among the heathen invaders. 2 In 
the following century, the venerable Augustine 
was sent by Gregory the Great, Bishop of Rome, 
to convert the Anglo-Saxons, which the British 
churches had been unable to effect, and by his ex- 
ertions, several churches were either founded or 
revived before or about the year 600, such as the 
churches of Canterbury, Rochester, London, &c. 
(Palmers's Treatise on the Church of Christ, Ap- 
pleton's edition, 1841, vol. i. ch. x. p. 207, 8, 9.) 

i Beda, Hist. Eccl. lib. i. c. 17. Stillingfleet argues that 
these bishops were sent by the Gallican synod only. 

* Seven British bishops assembled and conferred with St t 
Augustine. Beda, Ecc. Hist. lib. ii. c. 2. Theonus was Bishop 
of London, and Thadiocus, of York, among the Saxons, about 
A. D. 586. 



EXPLANATORY REMARKS. 11 

island, before the missionaries from Rome 
came among the Saxons. The pastors of 
British churches had, hundreds of years 
before this, taken their seat in general 
councils, where were assembled the clergy 
from all parts of the western Christian 
world. We may add, that as Christi- 
anity was already in the island when 
the papal missionaries came, and even 
in a purer form than they possessed it, 
there is good reason to suppose it would 
have spread among the Saxons had no 
missionaries come from Rome. On this 
point, however, it is useless to speculate. 
The Britons and the Saxons were at this 
time in a state of hostility to each other. 
They stood in the relation of victors and 
vanquished : an attitude most of all un- 
favourable to the cordial reception of the 
religion of one nation by the people of the 
other, The facts, however, are sufficient 



12 EXPLANATORY REMARKS. 

to set aside entirely the claims of the 
papal church in regard to the first esta- 
blishment of Christianity in Britain. Still, 
in the work before us, the conversion 
of the ancient Britons receives a * much 
smaller share of our attention than that 
of their conquerors and successors, the 
Saxons; and this for just and important 
reasons. 

The first is, the almost entire destitution 
of authentic records of the ancient British 
church. The Britons left no literature for 
after times; or, if any thing has come 
down to us that may be called such, it is 
nothing more than a few dried buds. It 
never came to ripe fruit. 

Even the civilization of the Britons, 
embracing, as it did, many Roman refine- 
ments and luxuries, was still extremely 
defective. It was Roman civilization; 
that is, the civilization of towns, not of 



EXPLANATORY REMARKS. 13 

the whole people. There was not suffi- 
cient union and national spirit to lead 
them to combine for the successful resist- 
ance of their invaders. 

The Saxons were a superior race to the 
Britons, both in their physical powers and 
their mental capacities. The Britons be- 
longed to the great Celtic family of nations, 
whose power was then vanishing away, 
over all Europe, before the swelling tide 
of the Germanic nations, to which the 
Saxons belonged. The conversion of the 
Saxons, then, was the grafting of a young 
stock, destined every year to shoot forth 
wider branches and stronger roots: the 
conversion of the Britons was like the 
engrafting of an aged tree-top, whose 
prime was past, and whose most abun- 
dant fruit had been shed for former 
generations. 

With these controlling facts in view, the 
2 



14 EXPLANATORY REMARKS. 

author has dwelt chiefly on those parts of 
the history where his own and his readers' 
deepest interest must be awakened. He 
commends it to their perusal in the same 
spirit in which it has been written, be- 
lieving that what has been a source of 
rich profit to his own mind will not be 
without its good fruit to the reader. 






EARLY MISSIONS 



ENGLAND- 



CHAPTER I. 

Great nations should not forget their origin — The 
inheritance of each generation — Our debt of 
gratitude to the good who have lived before us. 

" Beware lest thou forget the Lord thy 
God : lest, when thou hast eaten and art 
full ; and hast built goodly houses and 
dwelt in them, and thy herds and thy 
flocks, and thy silver and thy gold, and 
all that thou hast is multiplied ; then thy 
heart be lifted up, and thou forget the 
Lord thy God, who brought thee forth 
out of the land of Egypt, from the house 
of bondage ; and thou say in thine heart, 
<My power and the might of my hand 
hath gotten me this wealth.' But thou 

15 



16 EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 

shalt remember the Lord thy God : for it 
is he that giveth thee power to get wealth ; 
that he may establish his covenant, which 
he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this 
day." 

" Our fathers understood not thy won- 
ders in Egypt ; they remembered not the 
multitude of thy mercies. They were 
mingled among the heathen and learned 
their works ; and they served their idols. 
Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their 
daughters unto devils, and shed innocent 
blood, even the blood of their sons and 
their daughters, whom they sacrificed 
unto the idols. 

" S&ve us, Lord our God, and gather 
us from among the heathen to give thanks 
unto thy holy name, and to triumph in 
thy praise. Blessed be the Lord God of 
Israel from everlasting to everlasting, and 
let all the people say, Amen" 

These two passages were written by 
different men, separated from each other, 
in point of time, by many generations ; 
but they both relate to the same great 
theme. In the first, the appointed de- 
liverer of God's ancient people from Egyp- 



EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 17 

tian servitude, exhorts them, just before 
their entrance into the promised land, not 
to forget, in the times of their coming 
prosperity, their former state of weakness 
and bondage. When they should come 
into the rich and peaceful inheritance of 
Canaan, and this inheritance should have 
passed down for ages from fathers to sons, 
how easily might they forget that their 
nation were once aliens and bondsmen in 
a foreign land 5 and that their fathers were 
once strangers to the true God and wor- 
shippers of idols. 

The second of these passages was written 
by a pious Israelite during the captivity 
of the nation in Babylon. The psalm 
recounts the mercies of God, and makes 
confession of the sins of the people which 
brought on them the judgments of Heaven. 

The troubles and calamities of the na- 
tion, their captivity, their homeless and 
despised condition in a foreign land, had 
brought to mind the ways of God towards 
them in ages past. They thought of their 
2* 



18 EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 

once happy home from which they were 
now exiled. 

" By the rivers of Babylon there we sat down, 
Yea, we wept when we remembered Zion." 

In a similar manner, as the Jews in their 
prosperity forgot their former weakness, 
so do those who now belong to the great 
civilized nations of the earth forget that 
their forefathers were barbarians and 
heathen, and sacrificed their children to 
idol-gods. 

The people who speak the English lan- 
guage, embracing Great Britain and the 
United States, wield at this day a greater 
power, and exert a wider and stronger 
influence on the world, than the people of 
any other language upon earth. Yet this 
great nation, English and American — for 
we may call England and the United 
States one nation so far as our present 
subject is concerned — this great nation, if 
we trace back their history, will be found 
to have been once a feeble band of bar- 
barians, unknown to the rest of the world, 
wandering in forests, subsisting by hunt- 



EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 19 

ing and fishing, ignorant of true religion, 
and the slaves of superstition and all the 
passions and usages of savage life. 

We are now sending the gospel to the 
heathen nations, and we think we are do- 
ing an act of free benevolence ; but we 
are, in fact, only sending to others the 
same gospel which was, in ages past, sent 
to us, when we were degraded heathen. 

We are born to a rich inheritance of 
civil and religious blessings, order and 
liberty, Christianity and schools, science 
and literature, and we think them all ours 
by right. They are not ours. They 
were secured and handed down to us 
by brave and good men in ages past. 
They are given as a trust, that we may 
preserve them uncorrupted and transmit 
them to our posterity. Heroes and mar- 
tyrs toiled and died to secure the blessings 
which we are born to inherit. We owe 
them a debt we can never repay to them ; 
we can repay it only by labouring for the 
good of those who are to come after us. 
He who only enjoys the privileges he in- 



20 EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 

herits from his ancestors, and does nothing 
to enhance and transmit them to future 
times, is a moth in the world. He con- 
sumes what others have produced, and 
produces nothing himself. But the man 
who, in this day, is faithful to God and 
his generation, though he cannot repay 
the holy men of former times for what they 
have done for him, may still be a benefac- 
tor to the world, however humble his sta- 
tion in life. He may live in such a man- 
ner that the blessing of those now unborn 
shall rest on his name and memory after 
he is dead. 



EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 21 



CHAPTER II. 

England at the present day — Her power, science, 
literature ; her influence in the world ; her aims. 

In order to understand well the early- 
condition of England and the changes 
which ages have wrought in her state, it 
is necessary to think a little of her present 
power and greatness. I have said that 
England and the United States may be 
called one people, for they are of the same 
origin. Aged men now living remember 
when these states were colonies of Great 
Britain; and dependent on her for our 
laws, our teachers, our arts and commerce. 
Many churches in our land were built of 
bricks brought from England. There are 
many dwelling-houses in the older States 
which were framed and in a great mea- 
sure finished in England, and were then 
brought across the ocean and set up in the 
new country. 

We have become a great nation, but our 



22 EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 

history extends back only about two hun- 
dred years. In that time we have spread 
from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean ; 
from the Gulf of Mexico to the great 
lakes in the north. Over this broad coun- 
try there is spread an enterprising and in- 
dustrious population, more numerous than 
all the inhabitants of Great Britain forty 
years ago. Wherever they have begun 
their settlements, the forests have disap- 
peared, roads have been opened, smiling 
villages have started into being, and ci- 
vilization and religion and science have 
found a home. The United States form 
now one of the great nations of the earth. 
And why have they spread so rapidly and 
risen to such a height of power ? I an- 
swer, because we derived our origin from 
the Saxon race, a people distinguished 
above all others for their energy and un- 
conquerable love of liberty. England, 
though inhabited by the descendants of 
several people, is essentially a Saxon na- 
tion. It is the force of Anglo-Saxon cha- 
racter, transplanted into a new soil, that 



EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 23 

showed this rapid and mighty growth. It 
is because our forefathers were of this 
race that they were fitted to enter the new 
continent and lay the foundations of a 
great empire. It was English character, 
formed under the training of English laws 
and education and habits ; it was English 
energy and enterprise and integrity that 
made the first settlers of the United States 
the pioneers, and their descendants the 
lords of the western world. 

It is sometimes said that we owe our 
wonderful growth as a nation to the ad- 
vantages of our soil and climate. But 
how untrue is such an assertion ! Other 
nations sent colonists into the same conti- 
nent, where they had equal advantages 
of soil and climate. The French once 
had possession of the Canadas, Louisiana 
and the Mississippi Valley. Why did they 
not retain them, but because they had not 
energy equal to the English ? To say that 
these possessions were taken from them 
in war does not alter the case ; for war, 
however bad in itself and terrible in its 



24 EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 

consequences, is one way of manifesting 
a nation's energy, and the results of war 
are the measure of a nation's energy. 
The Spanish nation once held possession 
of Florida and the whole group of the 
West India Islands. They enjoyed the 
rich magnificence of nature in South 
America, and what did they make of it ? 
What kind of colonies were those while 
they continued colonies; and what kind 
of nations are they since they have tried to 
be nations ? The Dutch have planted co- 
lonies in Asia, in Africa, and in America, 
yet in what place have the descendants 
of these colonists become a great nation ? 
This is not said with the design of eulo- 
gizing ourselves ; but as one of the many 
proofs that the Anglo-Saxon race must 
be regarded as by far the most powerful 
people now existing on earth. 

I have spoken of the power of England 
as proved by the growth and present great- 
ness of the colonies she has planted in 
America. Let us look at some proofs of 
the power of England as exhibited on her 



EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 25 

own island shores. These proofs are the 
more interesting because we sometimes 
hear it said that the greatness of England 
has reached its height ; that her power is 
even now beginning to totter to its fall. 
But what is the fact, as gathered from her 
own condition ? Within the last forty years 
the population of Great Britain has more 
than doubled. In much less time than that, 
the produce of her soil has been rendered 
two-fold greater than it was. These are 
not signs of decay. In foreign lands her 
commerce spreads over every sea and en- 
ters the harbours of every shore. There is 
not an island in the known world which 
her mariners have not visited ; nor a port, 
where men traffic, where English mer- 
chandise has not found its way. 

The colonies of England are found in 
all the quarters of the world. The sun 
as he travels round the earth never ceases 
to shine on the possessions of England. 
The power of this island is felt by kings 
and emperors ten thousand miles across 
the ocean. Empires that were rich and 
3 



26 EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 

powerful before the existence of the Eng- 
lish was known, now cultivate peace 
with her, and are proud to enjoy her pro- 
tection. 

In literature and science England takes 
rank among the first nations of the earth. 
There is probably no one nation whose 
literature has done so much as that of 
England to enlarge and elevate the human 
mind, and extend the principles of liberty 
and Christianity in the world. The names 
of Milton, Shakspeare, Newton and Bacon 
will endure as long as those of Homer, 
Plato and Cicero. 

In physical science, that knowledge 
which gives man power over the material 
world, England surpasses all other nations. 
This is emphatically true in respect to the 
application of scientific knowledge to works 
of useful art. To prove this, let us com- 
pare England with France, which, if not 
first, is certainly second in scientific ad- 
vancement. Let us inquire into the way 
in which the two nations do their work, 
and we shall see which of them makes 



EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 27 

the greater use of scientific knowledge. 
France has more inhabitants than Eng- 
land. France has more horses, oxen and 
asses than England; and there is more 
work performed by men and animals in 
France than in England. But look again. 
While France performs one-third of all 
her labour by men and animals, and the 
other two-thirds by steam, wind and wa- 
ter ; England, on the other hand, performs 
by steam, wind and water more than ten 
times the work done by all her men and 
animals; and this swells the whole amount 
of work performed in Great Britain to 
more than four times as much as all the 
work done in France. And thus, while 
France makes her science, that is, the ap- 
plication of wind and water and steam, 
perform only twice as much labour as her 
men and animals, England makes her 
science perform ten times as much labour 
as her men and animals ; and thus it fol- 
lows that in England there is really going 
on more labour than in four such coun- 
tries as France. If you will now take a 



28 EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 

map and compare the broad country of 
France with England, you will see how 
striking this statement appears. 

Nor is the greatness of England shown 
merely in her physical power and her in- 
tellectual elevation. She is great in her 
moral aims and enterprises. If it shall be 
admitted that England is sometimes selfish 
and arbitrary in her treatment of other 
nations, yet if we look at the leading aims 
of her government in its transactions with 
other nations, we find England is a peace- 
maker among the nations. It is the aim 
of her government to promote a friendly 
understanding and good offices among 
the nations of the world. 

England is doing much to suppress that 
great evil, the African slave-trade. And, 
together with these great objects, she is 
labouring to spread Christianity through 
the world. Her missionaries have gone 
forth into every climate, and are labour- 
ing in all parts of the world to diffuse the 
religion of Jesus Christ. 

Reflect on these three great objects, the 



EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND, 29 

prevalence of peace among the nations, 
the suppression of the slave-trade, and the 
spread of Christianity through the world. 
What other nation is employed in pro- 
moting greater or more worthy objects 
than these ? If England has at times been 
oppressive, or has violated her treaties, 
what great nation has not oftener com- 
mitted similar or greater crimes ? 

Nor would we regard England at the 
present day as the greatest in every kind 
of intellectual effort. In learning and 
mental philosophy, Germany is regarded 
as in advance of all other nations. 

In the theory of some of the natural 
sciences France is greatly in advance of 
England ; but France, as we have seen, 
makes but a very limited application of 
her scientific knowledge to works of use- 
ful art. The nation is, to a considerable 
extent, destitute of religious faith, though 
her philosophers, we are told, are coming 
back to a more religious state of mind. 
The moral influence of France on the 
3* 



30 EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 

world is small compared with that of 
England. 

In any view we may take of the world, 
we must regard England as the chief 
among the nations of the earth. 

But my aim, in this book, is not to 
dwell on the present greatness and power 
of England; but to carry you back to the 
early days of her history. There was a 
time when this now great empire had no 
influence in the civilized world ; when in 
England there was neither science, nor 
civilization ; when she had no manufac- 
tures at home, nor commerce with foreign 
nations; when she had neither schools, 
nor books, nor letters ; when the glorious 
and solemn history of past ages was 
all, to her, a blank ; when no books, nor 
learning, nor sacred institutions, handed 
down to her the memory of the great 
transactions of past ages; when the glean- 
ings of tradition, from barbarous ances- 
tors, and the dim teachings of nature, 
furnished the people of this island with all 
their knowledge and all their faith. As a 






EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 31 

broad river, which bears a nation's com- 
merce on its deep waves, if traced back 
thousands of miles to the mountains 
where it takes its rise, is only a rill, so a 
great nation, that now spreads the light 
of its science and its power over the 
world, jvas once a small people, unknown 
abroad, and ignorant and poor at home. 
I invite my readers back with me to such 
a point in the history of England. We 
will pass over the intervening ages, and 
visit this land in its early forest state ; 
when its people were few in number and 
living as savages. We will go back to the 
time when this great tree, which now 
towers so high towards heaven, and 
spreads its branches wide, was a thorn- 
bush, growing wild on the heath. It had 
borne no fruit. It had not been grafted 
with a pure and holy religion. 



32 EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 



CHAPTER III. 

England two thousand years ago — Roman expedi- 
tion to the island of barbarians. 

About nineteen hundred years ago, 
there were collected on the north-western 
coast of France, near where Calais now 
stands, a Roman fleet and army. They 
had conquered many of the tribes of Gaul, 
and were now preparing for another ex- 
pedition. Having collected about one 
hundred vessels and about ten thousand 
soldiers, their commander, Julius Caesar, 
gave orders for the troops to embark and 
follow him. It was past the middle of a 
quiet autumn night, when they loosened 
their ships from the shore and steered 
westward, across the strait, toward the 
island of Britain. They had no compass 
to guide them, and their small ill-built 
ships were at the mercy of the waves ; 
but the weather was favourable and they 
proceeded safely on their voyage. They 



EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. , 33 

had never visited that land before, and 
knew neither the size nor shape of the 
island, nor the names of the nations that 
inhabited it, nor their habits, customs, or 
laws. Those people had never injured 
them, nor given them any just provocation 
for carrying war into their peaceful homes. 
It was about the middle of the following 
day when this hostile fleet drew near the 
British shore ; and there they saw armed 
men drawn up all along the coast, alarmed 
at their hostile approach and prepared to 
resist their landing. The shore was high 
and steep, and the Britons stood on its 
edge ready to hurl down missiles on the 
invaders' heads, as soon as their ships 
should touch the land. In this difficulty 
Caesar waited at anchor till the middle of 
the afternoon, and then, as the wind and 
tide were both favourable, gave orders to 
set sail, and passed rapidly to a place 
about seven miles from the former, where 
the shore was smooth, and he might ex- 
pect to secure a landing. But the Britons 
knew their design, and their cavalry and 



34 EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 

chariots were on the ground before them ; 
and then commenced a fierce battle, on 
the one side for conquest and glory, and 
on the other for freedom and for country. 
For a time the Romans seemed to fight hi 
vain. Their vessels could not come near 
the shore, so that when the Roman 
soldiers leaped from them, they were at 
once in water up to their breasts and 
arms 5 their heavy weapons, shield, spear 
and sword, were only an encumbrance ; 
while the Britons on land rode near to 
them and hurled their darts upon them 
with great effect. Caesar, observing this, 
ordered some light ships, with engines 
and slingers, to go round and attack the 
Britons on the side. The Roman slings 
and arrows, with the stones and heavy 
darts thrown from the engines, drove the 
Britons back a little, when a standard- 
bearer of one of the legions leaped from 
his ship into the water, calling on his 
comrades to follow him. 

The Roman soldiers, fearing that their 
eagle would come into the hands of the 



EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 35 

barbarians, followed the standard-bearer, 
and the fight became general. By degrees 
the Romans gained firmer footing and 
beat back the enemy, till at length they 
were completely routed. 

They then sent ambassadors to negoti- 
ate peace with the conquerors. Caesar 
required that the sons of the chief men of 
the nation should be given up to him, as 
hostages for the peaceable behaviour of 
the conquered people ; and ordered them 
to disband, and return to theii^homes. 

Such was the beginning of the conquest 
of Britain, by the Romans. I say the be- 
ginning, for it was not till several genera- 
tions after, that the island was completely 
conquered and made subject to the Roman 
power. In after times, army after army 
was sent over, tribe after tribe was con- 
quered; forts were built, and military 
roads made. One hundred and fifty years 
after the invasion of Britain by Caesar, 
the Roman emperor, Severus, built a wall 
across the whole island, from east to west, 



36 EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 

dividing England from the more barbarous 
tribes of Scotland. 

The remains of these ancient works 
may still be seen in various parts of the 
island, testifying, after so many centuries, 
the power of the first conquerors of Bri- 
tain. I shall not dwell further on the 
history of this conquest. 

To the Britons it brought the hated 
presence of foreign armies, tribute and 
slavery. To the Romans, it gave the 
empty glory of a new victory, extended 
the bounds of their empire, already too 
large, and made the world acquainted 
with a nation hitherto unknown. To the 
Romans, before the time of Julius Caesar, 
the name of Britain sounded as the name 
of some distant island sounds to us, where 
ships have scarcely ever been, and with 
which no regular intercourse is kept up. 
The Romans regarded Britain as the ex- 
treme part of the world, towards the west. 
Numerous lands in Europe, Asia and 
Africa, they had visited and conquered, 



EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 37 

but Britain they had not, until this inva- 
sion, approached. 

We have only to go back in imagina- 
tion less than two thousand years, and we 
find Rome was mistress of the world : her 
military roads diverged from the eternal 
city towards every quarter of the globe, 
and traversed all the great kingdoms of 
Europe, of Africa and of western Asia ; 
her legions were stationed in all these 
kingdoms, and her ensigns planted on 
the walls of all their great cities ; yet, 
the Romans had sent no fleets nor armies 
to disturb that distant and insignificant 
island of barbarians which the most 
powerful nation of the earth now occu- 
pies. Such was Rome, and such was 
England, less than twenty centuries ago. 

About a hundred years after the in- 
vasion of Britain by Caesar, a learned 
Roman* was writing a geography of the 
world. He describes the different coun- 
tries of the world, Mauritania, Africa Pro- 

* Pomponius Mela, 
4 



38 EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 

pria, Cyrenaica, Egypt, Arabia, Syria, 
Asia Minor, Scythia, Thrace, Macedonia, 
Greece, Illyria, Gaul, Germania, Judea, 
Persia, and other countries ; but, when he 
comes to treat of Britain, he expresses 
his regret at the little knowledge possessed 
respecting it, and hopes that, by the suc- 
cess of the Roman arms, the island and its 
savage inhabitants would soon be better 
known. The centuries have rolled on : 
and, while the towers and palaces of 
Rome have been crumbling into ruin, this 
island has indeed become better known ; 
not so much by the successes attending the 
Roman arms, as by the mighty providence 
of God. 

Julius Caesar, when he invaded Britain, 
studied with some attention the character 
of its inhabitants, and has left a record of 
his observations. From this and other 
sources of information I shall present to 
you, as well as I am able, a brief view of 
the ancient Britons, their habits, customs, 
laws and religion. 



EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 39 



CHAPTER IV. 

The island of Britain in ancient times ; its forests, 
marshes and lakes — The ancient Briton's house, 
estate, employment — The religion of the ancient 
Britons — Stonehenge — The doom of the oppres- 
sors — Changes during five hundred years— 
Christianity among the Britons — Roman civili- 
zation — Roman vice. 

Let us look back to the early times of 
which I have spoken ; and suppose that 
we are about to visit the island of ancient 
Britain, in order to survey the country, 
and learn the character of its inhabitants. 

The land of England, now one of the 
most richly cultivated regions on earth, 
was, in ancient times, a continuous wood. 
The dark, silent shade of the primeval 
forest, where no axe had ever sounded, 
covered those broad plains that now smile 
with grain and grass, and are adorned 
with roads and hedges, with cottages and 
palaces. Many a sweet green meadow, 
where the mower now whets his scythe, 






40 EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 

was, in those early times, a stagnant pool 
or marsh. In those times there was seen 
no broad well-wrought road, extending 
from city to city, through a country 
thronged with life and industry, and 
bright with beauty on every hand. The 
thousand sights and sounds of civilized 
life that fill the ear and eye, as one stands 
in a thickly-settled country; the tremu- 
lous jar of loaded wagons or cars, the 
rattle and roaring echo of lighter carriages, 
fields divided by green trimmed hedges, 
and sprinkled over with busy men ; the 
spires and domes that shine in the sunlight, 
as you look across the green fields ; the 
thronged houses and churches of the city, 
as they are dimly seen through the smoky 
cloud that hangs over it; and the deep 
hum of life that comes from it through 
the air, interspersed with the sharper ring 
of the hammer or the flail, near at hand ; 
all these things were once unknown here. 
Through those gloomy forests of early 
times, no sound came to the ear, except 
the sighing or roaring of the wind, and 



EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 41 

the occasional note of a bird, or the cry of 
a wild beast. No white cottage or palace 
glittered through the trees, in pleasant 
contrast with the dark green shade. No 
church-spire, running up gracefully to- 
wards the sky, marked the place of a 
distant town. The only variety of view 
in this wild forest land was an occasional 
opening for the pasturing of a few cattle, 
the line of blue mist rising over the dis- 
tant river, or perhaps the smoke curling 
up nearer at hand from a Briton's hut. 
Let us approach and observe more closely 
their mode of life. 

The Briton's house and estate. — The 
house of the ancient Briton was a low 
hut of small poles or reeds. It was 
made by driving stakes into the ground, 
near each other, and then weaving in 
small flexible poles or reeds, horizontally. 
Framed timber, boards, doors, fire-place 
and chimney, were all unknown to him. 
The middle of his hut was his fire-place, 
and a hole in the roof directly over it was 
his chimney. Around the house was a 
4* 



42 EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 

yard, into which cattle might be driven at 
night, and secured from wild beasts or 
robbers. These cattle constituted all his 
wealth. It was only a few of them, who 
lived near the sea-coast, towards France, 
who cultivated the soil. They had neither 
fields of grain, nor valuable houses, nor 
money. Cicero, who lived in the same 
age with Caesar, in writing to his friend 
Atticus respecting Britain, says, "It is 
known that there is not a scruple of mo- 
ney in the island, nor any hope of booty, 
but in slaves." They sometimes, how- 
ever, used copper and iron rings for mo- 
ney, valued according to their weight. 

The Briton's dress, appearance and 
employment. — As the wealth of the an- 
cient Briton was in cattle, and they 
had not the means of manufacturing 
cloth, his dress was made of the skins 
of animals. The hair and beard on the 
upper lip were suffered to grow very 
long, and, though white in their natu- 
ral complexion, they stained themselves 
blue, to give them a fiercer aspect in 



EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 43 

battle, or because they thought blue was 
a handsomer complexion than white. 
Such was the kind of people who once 
inhabited the fair land of England. When 
they were in danger of being attacked in 
war, they gathered together in one place, 
built their slender huts near each other, 
enclosed the whole settlement with a 
strong fence, within which they drove 
their cattle at night ; and this crowd of 
huts, with its blue inhabitants in shaggy 
skins, and its bellowing cattle, was a Bri- 
tish town. 

As cattle constituted their wealth, too, 
the tending of their herds was their sole 
employment. The rich soil beneath their 
feet they did not cultivate, but left it in 
its native wild state. They had few me- 
chanic arts and no commerce, so that they 
lived almost entirely the wandering life 
of herdsmen. As this life gave them but 
little employment, they were much ad- 
dicted to robbery and war ; and as their 
neighbours were no better than them- 
selves, they were liable to be attacked and 



44 EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 

robbed in their turn. They were divided 
into many tribes, or small nations. When 
war was declared against a hostile tribe, 
they followed their king, most of the peo- 
ple on foot, but their chiefs and nobles on 
horses and in chariots. Their chariots, in 
war, were furnished with scythes at the 
sides and underneath, which mangled in 
a shocking manner all within their reach, 
as the horses rushed through the ranks of 
the enemy. When they had broken in 
among the enemy, the warriors leaped 
down from the chariot and fought on foot. 
The drivers then retired a little from the 
conflict, so as to receive the warriors on 
the chariot, and bear them safely off, if 
they should be too hardly pressed. With 
these means of warfare the Britons re- 
sisted bravely the Roman invaders of their 
country. But their savage valour was not 
a match for the steady discipline of the 
Romans, whose whole trade was war, and 
who had already conquered most of the 
civilized world. After a series of years, 
and a great number of battles, the Britons 



EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND, 45 

were entirely conquered. Roman soldiers 
were quartered on the conquered inhabit- 
ants in all the most important places. 
British youths, the sons of the kings and 
chiefs, were given up to the Romans as 
hostages, and the common people carried 
in great numbers to Rome, to be sold as 
slaves. It is time, however, that I pro- 
ceed to another subject, and describe 

The religion of the ancient Britons. — 
I have said above, that in ancient Bri- 
tain there was seen no church-spire 
pointing to the sky. The Briton had no 
just knowledge of the true God. He had 
not heard of a Saviour. Nor did the Ro- 
man conquerors bring to him any better 
faith or purer worship. The Romans 
were idolaters, and if their heathenism 
was, in some respects, better than that of 
the Britons, in other respects it was worse. 
The religion of the Britons was fierce and 
bloody. They had no faith in a God who 
was reconciling the world to himself; a 
God who would pardon the penitent and 
believing, and who desired not the death 



46 EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 



of the wicked. Instead of trusting to the 
sacrifice made by Christ, they sacrificed 
themselves to appease the Deity. They 
thought there was no mode of conciliating 




EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 47 

the gods but by the infliction of suffer- 
ings on men. When they were afflicted 
with disease, or were in danger, they 
sacrificed some of their dependants to 
avert the calamity. Sometimes they 
made immense images of wicker-work, 
resembling those which are used for the 
like cruel purpose among some savage 
tribes of the present day, which they filled 
with men and then set them on fire. 
Thieves and robbers were usually sacri- 
ficed at these dreadful scenes ; but, when 
criminals were not to be had, the innocent 
were taken. The priests or ministers of 
this terrific religion were called Druids. 
They were honoured as men inspired by 
God; they had almost unbounded au- 
thority in all matters of controversy 
among the people. 

What must have been the character of 
a people, where the ministers of its reli- 
gion were such as these ! 

The ancient Britons left no books to 
give us information of their character and 
their religion. Their ordinary dwellings 



48 EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 

were too frail to endure a long time ; yet 
some monuments of the Druidical wor- 
ship are probably seen in those massive 
stone ruins found in various parts of the 
island. One of them we will notice. In 
the southern part of England, midway 
from its eastern to its western boundary, 
on a wide open plain, there stands a work 
more ancient than history, and probably 
a Druid temple. As the traveller ap- 
proaches the ruin, he seems to be coming 
to a mass of large irregular stones : as he 
draws nearer, they grow higher and larger 
to his view, till he finds himself by their 
side, and they tower above him in still, 
awful strength, as he enters within the 
circle. Some of the stones are lying pros- 
trate; others stand erect. As he raises 
his eyes upon one of these vast pillars, 
he feels himself shrunk to nothing in its 
presence ; while they, like relics of a past 
eternity, seem to look down on him and 
mock his frail and transient existence. 
As he looks around, the situation of the 
stones seems, at first, entirely without order; 




AH ' ARC m ID) HUTIID . 



EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 49 

but a few moments' inspection brings 
them into harmony before the eye. This 
edifice originally consisted of four rows 
of stone pillars, one within another. In 
the centre of the whole is an altar, of a 
single block of marble, sixteen feet long, 
four feet wide and twenty inches thick, 




Around this altar are the rows of pillars, 
at different distances, the outer circle form- 
ing a circumference of three hundred feet, 
5 



50 EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 

This circle originally consisted of thirty- 
pillars seventeen feet high, six feet wide 
and three feet thick ; and covered at the 
top with cap stones, joining them together 
and forming a circular crown for the 
whole. The second circle consists of 
small pillars, while the third or inner cir- 
cle has the largest stones of all. They are 
twenty-three feet high, seven wide and 
three thick. 

There is good reason to suppose that 
this spot was once the scene of the ancient 
pagan worship of our British forefathers. 
This edifice, open to the sky above an 
to the air around, was probably a Druidi 
cal temple ; and the large flat stone in the 
centre, the altar on which human victims 
were sacrificed to appease their offended 
Deity.* 



i 



* A recent traveller, in giving an account of an- 
cient ruins, in France, of the same general characte: 
with those of Stonehenge, gives the following de- 
scription of the altar stone; showing beyond doubt 
that its construction was for the terrible work of 
human sacrifice :— 



! 



EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 51 

Such were the people whom the Romans, 
under Julius Caesar, came to conquer. 
But the Roman power was destined not 
to endure forever. It was founded in op- 
pression, and could not last. At the time 
Caesar invaded Britain, it had attained 
nearly its height. This island was one of 
Rome's latest conquests. The empire had 
grown far beyond its just size, and was 
beginning to decay and crumble from its 
own enormous weight. While the Ro- 

" There is an artificial cavity in the stone, having 
every appearance of being designed to receive the 
body of a human victim preparatory to sacrifice. 
Lying down upon the stone, I found that the 
shoulders were received by a cavity just sufficient 
to contain them ; while the neck, reclining in a 
narrow trench, was bent over a small ridge, and 
the head descended into a deep circular hollow be- 
yond. From the narrow trench which received the 
neck, was chiselled a small channel, down the in- 
clined plane of the stone. This, being on the left 
side of the recumbent victim, was well adapted to 
carry off the blood which flowed from the jugular 
vein. A person lying in such a cavity is quite 
helpless, and in such a position a child may sacri- 
fice the strongest man." 



52 EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 

man power was strong abroad, it was dis- 
eased and weak at home. The great men 
of the city had grown rich by the robbery 
of whole provinces and kingdoms. A 
countless multitude of strangers thronged 
its streets, without home or employment. 
Crimes of every kind multiplied within its 
walls, and showed that the day of her 
downfall was drawing near. After pos- 
sessing the island of Britain several hun- 
dred years ; having constructed roads and 
forts and towns, and introduced the arts 
of Roman civilization and the corruptions 
of Roman vice, the conquerors were com- 
pelled at length to withdraw their legions 
and leave the Britons to themselves. But 
the Romans did not leave the Britons as 
they found them. Far from it. It was 
nearly five hundred years from the time 
when Caesar first landed in Britain to the 
time when the last Roman legion embarked 
from its shores to bid it a final adieu. But 
during that five hundred years, great 
changes had taken place among the Bri- 
tons, which I must request you carefully 



EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 53 

to notice. They illustrate the overruling 
providence of God, and show both his 
justice and his mercy in the government 
of the nations of the earth. 

When the Romans left Britain, its 
towns were no longer barricaded forests, 
nor its houses wood-cabins covered with 
straw ; nor its inhabitants savages, naked, 
with bodies painted blue or clothed in 
skins. The country had been for several 
centuries the seat of Roman civilization 
and luxury. The natives had learned to 
build houses, courts, market-places and 
towns. Many of them had become ac- 
quainted with the Roman language, 
literature and laws, had become wealthy, 
civilized and luxurious, like the great men 
of Rome. But let us not carry this picture 
too far; This state of wealth and luxury 
did not exist all over the country, but only 
in the towns. In the country, the man- 
ners of the people had been somewhat 
changed, but they were still in an igno- 
rant, degraded state. If they were in- 
structed in agriculture or the mechanic 
5* 



54 EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 

arts, they at the same time became bond- 
men to some rich lord, who lived far from 
them, in a city. In modern times, civili- 
zation spreads all over the country. The 
American farmer, who holds his own 
plough, has all that is most valuable in 
the civilization of his country brought to 
his door. As he works in the field, his 
well-clad and happy children go by him 
on their way to school, with books in their 
hands, containing the choicest things that 
good and wise men in all the world, and 
in all time, have written or discovered. 
When he goes home, he has the Bible 
and the best books in the world in his 
house. His clothing and food are brought 
from various parts of the earth; some 
from across the ocean. On the Sabbath 
he rests, and joins his neighbours in going 
to a place of worship in his own town. 
All the world possesses, that is most import- 
ant for his bodily comfort or for his soul, 
is brought and placed in his hands. How 
different is this from the ancient civiliza- 
tion ! That was the civilization of war- 



EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 55 

riors and oppressors ; and its fruits were 
luxury in towns and cities, and degrada- 
tion in the country. 

Another change that had taken place 
among the Britons, while the Romans were 
in possession of the island, was in their 
religion. They were no longer all a 
pagan people, sacrificing their children in 
the fire to an unknown god. While some 
doubtless held to the religion of their fore- 
fathers, and some adopted the pagan wor- 
ship which the Roman conquerors brought 
in, the great body of the Britons had 
turned from their cruel pagan faith and 
received the gospel of Christ. Christian 
churches had been erected in many places, 
and the altars of the Druidical temples no 
longer smoked with the fires of human 
sacrifice. About fifty years after Cassar 
entered Britain, the shepherds from the 
east came to visit the infant Saviour in 
Judea, and in a few years after the cruci- 
fixion of Christ, the gospel was preached 
by the apostles throughout the Roman 
empire. It is not possible to say who first 



56 EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 

preached the gospel in Britain, nor the 
exact time when it was introduced. Long 
before the Romans withdrew, however, 
it had spread wide in the island, and con- 
verted thousands from the dark and cruel 
religion of their fathers to the pure and 
benevolent faith of the gospel. 

But we must notice another change 
going on in the condition of the Britons 
during these centuries. While they were 
growing richer and more luxurious through 
the civilization of the Romans, they were 
not growing more powerful, or more able 
to defend themselves; and in the mean 
time barbarous nations were pressing on 
them, on different sides, ready to break 
into the inheritance which was now rich 
enough to reward them for plundering it. 
First, the Picts and the Scots, tribes that 
inhabited the northern part of the island, 
broke over the wall that had been built 
across the land to keep them out, and 
ravaged the more southern part. These 
invaders were repelled with great diffi- 
culty. The Roman legions, to which the 



EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 57 

Britons had looked for defence from their 
enemies, were about withdrawing and 
taking a final leave of the helpless inha- 
bitants. Their barbarous enemies were 
becoming more numerous, and pressing 
harder and harder upon them. In their 
alarm and distress, they invited other na- 
tions to come over from the continent to 
defend them ; but these foreign defenders 
proved but poor friends to the Britons. 
They were like the hawk who came into 
the dove-cot to defend the doves against 
the kite. 

Such was the condition of the Britons 
at the close of the period to which I have 
been directing your attention. Partially 
civilized and Christianized, enervated by 
luxury, exposed to invasion and robbery 
from the hardy barbarians around them, 
they were, finally, deserted by the only 
power to which they had, for hundreds of 
years, looked for defence against their 
hostile neighbours. 

Such were the Britons at that time ; and 
now, after more than a thousand years 



58 EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 

have passed, where shall we look for the 
descendants of that people? They no 
longer possess the rich inheritance of their 
forefathers. We shall find them in only 
two small sections of the island of Great 
Britain ; in the mountainous district of 
Wales and in the Highlands of Scotland. 
Here are found to this day the descend- 
ants of the ancient Britons. But from all 
the more level and richer part of the 
island they have been driven by war, 
and their inheritance seized by a stronger 
people. 

I must now invite you to leave Britain 
for a season and go to Rome, and when 
we return it will be in very different com- 
pany from the armed legions with which 
Caesar invaded the island. 



EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 59 



CHAPTER V. 

The scene at Rome — The captives for sale — The 
pious monk — The mission to Britain — Discou- 
ragements — Arrival — Landing — Interview with 
the king — The tree planted. 

Let us suppose ourselves at Rome, 
about five hundred and ninety years after 
the birth of Christ, and six hundred and 
forty years after the invasion of Britain 
by Caesar ; Rome, the capital of the world, 
into which had flowed for ages the wealth 
of conquered nations ; Rome, the seat of 
empire, and learning, and wealth, and lux- 
ury, and crime. The day of her highest 
power had passed, and she was then be- 
ginning to decline. She had for ages held 
the nations in bitter bondage, and now the 
time was drawing near when the cup she 
had given to others was to be given her 
to drink. Still, at the time we are now 
speaking of, her splendour was hardly 



EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 

diminished. She was still the great city 
of the earth. But we must continue our 
survey a little further. Rome was no 
longer a persecutor of the Christian religion. 
In former ages the blood of the martyrs of 
Jesus had been shed within her walls. 
The apostle Paul suffered martyrdom at 
Rome. You have many times read the 
passage he wrote when looking forward 
to that event : — 

"For I am now ready to be offered, and 
the time of my departure is at hand. I 
have fought a good fight, I have finished 
my course, I have kept the faith : hence- 
forth there is laid up for me a crown of 
righteousness, which the Lord, the right- 
eous Judge, shall give me at that day." 

And, after this apostle, multitudes of 
Christians in Rome suffered the same fate. 
Some were compelled to fight with gla- 
diators, or were thrown to wild beasts, 
while tens of thousands, in the amphithea- 
tre around them, looked on and triumphed 
in their sufferings. But all these scenes 
had passed away. The followers of Christ 



EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 61 

had multiplied in great numbers. They 
were now found in all conditions of life. 
Learned men and senators and emperors 
had embraced the Christian faith. The 
laws that had been enacted against Chris- 
tians had been repealed. They were no 
longer compelled to hide themselves, and 
to worship in cellars and garrets and se- 
cret places for fear of being crucified or 
thrown to wild beasts. They might now 
come forth and worship in churches ; and 
some of these churches had formerly been 
temples of the idol-gods. The ancient pa- 
gan worship had been condemned by the 
Roman senate, and laws passed against 
such as should thereafter practise it. The 
statues and images had been thrown down 
from their ancient bases, and the Roman 
empire was nominally Christian. Instead 
of sending persecutors abroad to punish 
those who bore the Christian name, Rome 
was now sending missionaries of the cross 
into various nations of Europe, Africa 
and Asia. And the Bishop of Rome, in- 
stead of being merely the spiritual instruc- 
6 



62 EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 

ter of a despised church, had become a 
man of rank and power, and was, in the 
course of a few generations, to take his 
place among the princes of Europe. 
Such was the state of Rome at the time 
of which we are speaking. 

About this period, it happened one day, 
that a monk of one of the monasteries in 
the city was passing through the Roman 
market, and saw there three youths set 
up to be sold for slaves. The manly 
forms, fair complexion and beautiful faces 
of these youths excited the interest of the 
monk, and he entered into the following 
conversation with the merchants who 
offered the youths for sale : 

Monk. Whence come these captives? 

Merchants. From the isle of Britain. 

M. Are those islanders Christians ? 

Mer. No ; they are pagans. 

M. It is sad that the prince of darkness 
should possess men with so bright faces. 
But what is the name of their particular 
nation ? 

Mer. They are called Angli. 



EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 63 

M. And well they may be, for their 
(i angelic" faces. Such, indeed, should be 
co-heirs with the angels of heaven. In 
what province of England did they live ? 

Mer. In Deira. 

M. Then let them be freed "de ira 
Dei/' from the wrath of God. Who is the 
king of that country ? 

Mer. Ella. 

M. Surely, hallelujah ought to be sung 
in this kingdom, to the praise of that God 
who created all things. 

In this way did the pious monk turn 
the various answers made to his inquiries 
into intimations and encouragements for 
the plan which was already formed in his 
heart ; the conversion of that nation to the 
faith of Christ. Such fair and noble spe- 
cimens of the image of God, he felt, must 
not be suffered to perish in pagan dark- 
ness. Though they inhabited one of 
the most distant countries of the then 
known world, the word of eternal life 
must be preached to them, and they must 
be brought into the fold of Christ. Full 



64 EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 

of this benevolent and self-denying plan, 
he applied to the pope or bishop of Rome, 
for power to carry his purpose into effect, 
proposing to go himself as one of the mis- 
sionaries to that heathen land. The pope, 
however, was unwilling to spare so able 
and faithful a servant from the city, and 
thus the scheme of sending missionaries 
was, for a time, delayed. But it was not 
forgotten by the person who had first 
formed it, and the providence of God, in 
due time, enabled him to put it into exe- 
cution. In a few years after the events 
above stated, the pope died: and this 
same monk, of whom we have spoken, 
was appointed to succeed him. This 
monk, whose name was Gregory, was 
born of a noble family, and had borne 
many important offices in the State. He 
had been prefect, or governor of the city ; 
he had been sent to foreign nations on 
important embassies, and in all his public 
duties had shown himself an able and 
devoted servant of the State. But the 
wealth he had inherited, and the honours 



EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 65 

conferred on him by the emperor, did not 
satisfy his soul. He retired from public 
life, and devoted his wealth to charitable 
purposes. Into one of the monasteries, 
erected by his own wealth, this nobleman 
had entered, and there was passing his 
life in seclusion from the world and in 
pious and charitable duties, when the in- 
cident that occurred in the market awa- 
kened his benevolence and zeal in behalf 
of the pagan English natives. This pur- 
pose, defeated for a time, he was at length 
enabled to fulfil ; for when the clergy of 
Rome and the neighbouring country as- 
sembled to elect a successor to the pope 
who had just died, the character and 
learning of Gregory, his rank and talents 
and piety combined to point him out as 
the most suitable man for the important 
office. 

Thus, this man, who had retired from 
the world, was called, in the providence 
of God, to come forward and fill the most 
responsible station in it. And now the 
purpose that had lain so near his heart, 
6* 



66 EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND, 

respecting the conversion of the English, 
was revived, and he entered on its fulfil- 
ment. He could not, as he had before de- 
sired to do, go himself as a missionary to 
the English. He selected a company of 
missionaries whom he thought suitable for 
this work, and placed them under the 
direction of a monk named Augustine. 
Having been instructed by Gregory in the 
objects and duties of their mission, these 
forty monks bade adieu to the quiet of 
their monastery, and set out for a distant 
land, to labour among a barbarous people, 
whose language and customs they did not 
know. We must not suppose that this 
first mission to our forefathers was, in its 
appearance, very much like a modern 
mission. Modern missionaries carry with 
them Bibles and tracts. These ancient 
missionaries had not a printed Bible nor a 
tract. There was not, at that time, one 
printed book in all Europe. Modern mis- 
sionaries study the language of the people 
to whom they are going, before they set 
out; but the companions of Augustine 






EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 67 

knew nothing of the language of the peo- 
ple to whom they were going. There was 
no school or college in Rome, where that 
language could be learned. There was 
no book in Rome, or in the world, written 
in that language ; not a dictionary, nor a 
grammar, nor the smallest pamphlet could 
they obtain to show them what was the 
language of the people to whom they were 
going. Thus prepared, or as we might 
better say, unprepared, they set out. They 
had in their possession some of the books 
of the Bible, written on parchment, and 
rolled up like maps. They had in their 
memory the prayers and service of the 
church ; and in their hearts the love of 
God and man, and a deep sentiment of 
obedience to their earthly master, the 
bishop of Rome. As they proceeded on 
their journey, and came near to their des- 
tination, the rumours they heard respect- 
ing the ferocity and barbarity of the 
Saxons cooled their zeal and broke their 
courage. The distance they would be 
from home, their total ignorance of the 



68 EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 

language, arid their dread of meeting a 
strange and barbarous people, all united 
and quite disheartened them, so that they 
gave up the enterprise and set out on their 
return to Rome. Augustine sent a letter 
to the pope, praying to be excused from 
the difficult and dangerous work. The 
enterprise, he represented, would probably 
cost them their lives, and would not suc- 
ceed. The people were too ferocious to 
be instructed, and he prayed that he and 
his companions might be permitted to 
return to Rome. There, he doubtless 
thought, in the quiet of the monastery, 
they might be useful and happy. They 
could spend their lives in piety and 
peace, and not throw themselves away in 
the vain attempt to convert a nation of 
barbarous heathen. Gregory, however, 
did not yield to their importunity. He 
replied in an impressive letter, reminding 
them how disgraceful it would be to turn 
back from a work they had once under- 
taken ; that the blessing of God would go 
with them and give them success, and 



i, if 



EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 69 

they should fail, they would have an eter- 
nal reward in heaven. He also wrote 
letters to the bishops and princes of Gaul, 
through which they were to pass, com- 
mending the missionaries to their hospi- 
tality and protection on their journey. 
Thus encouraged, Augustine and his com- 
panions once more resumed their journey. 
As they approached the place of their des- 
tination, it became an important question 
for them to decide what kingdom of the 
Saxons they should first enter; for the 
people were, at this time, divided into 
se veral distinct kingdoms. Which of these 
would receive them with the greatest 
kindness ? Which of them was least hos- 
tile to strangers; or would be least op- 
posed to the introduction of a new 
religion ? While they were deliberating 
on this question, they learned a fact that 
decided their choice, and which shows us 
that the providence of God had been pre- 
paring the way for them to enter on their 
labours. 

Ethelbert, king of Kent, had married 



70 EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 

Bertha, a princess from Gaul, who had 
before been converted to the Christian faith. 
This princess had stipulated, in her mar- 
riage, that she should have the right to 
exercise her own religion, and she had 
brought with her from France a Christian 
bishop to be the chaplain of her family. 
Here, then, a beginning had been made, 
and they determined to apply first to the 
king of Kent, whose queen was already 
a Christian. 

There was another thing in their fa- 
vour. This kingdom was the first to 
which they would arrive when they 
should cross from France to England. It 
lay along the river Thames, and extended 
east as far as the English channel. They 
would, therefore, have no hostile nation 
to pass through to reach this kingdom. 
Having formed their plan, they crossed the 
strait that separates England from France, 
now the strait of Dover, and landed at the 
island of Thanet, near the mouth of the 
Thames. From this place Augustine sent 
one of his company with an interpreter 



EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 71 

to King Ethelbert, announcing that he 
came from Rome with a message to him, 
and promised an eternal kingdom and 
everlasting joys in heaven to those who 
should receive his message. The king, 
who, since his marriage with the queen, 
had been no longer hostile to Christianity, 
listened attentively to this address, and 
sent back word that they might remain at 
Thanet, and that they should in the mean 
time be supplied with every necessary till 
he should determine what course he would 
pursue respecting them. Here the king 
was in difficulty. He had himself no 
hostility to these new comers ; his queen 
was decidedly in their favour; but his 
nobles would be bitterly opposed to the 
introduction of a new religion, and so 
would be the priests of the old pagan 
worship. After deliberating a few days, 
he sent into the island, informing Augus- 
tine that he would hold a conference with 
them and hear further what they had to 
propose. The day was appointed. The 
king, surrounded by his lords, sat in the 



72 EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 

open air, fearing to go into a house, lest 
he should be exposed to some magical art 
from the strangers. The missionaries, 
with Augustine at their head, marched in 
procession, chanting the litany as they 
went, and in front of the procession was 
carried a silver cross and a painted repre- 
sentation of the Saviour. In this some- 
what pompous and ceremonial manner 
they approached the king, who command- 
ed them to sit down and make known their 
message. When Augustine had deliver- 
ed his address, (the interpreter translating 
it from Latin into Saxon as he went 
along,) the king answered them to this 
effect : — 

" Your words are fair and good, but, 
since they are uncertain, we cannot at 
once leave the ancient customs of Bri- 
tain, which have been for so long a time 
observed. But, since ye are strangers 
coming from a far country to make known 
to us what ye esteem for our good, we 
will not forbid any converts whom your 
preaching can convince. In the mean 



EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 73 

time, we will provide you necessaries for 
your comfort and accommodation.' '* 

* This was the substance of the king's speech, 
but it was delivered in the Saxon language ; and 
as this was the first interview on record between 
Christians and our pagan ancestors, I will, to gra- 
tify the reader's curiosity, give the first sentence of 
this speech in the original Saxon as we may sup- 
pose it came from Ethelbert's lips. From this 
source a great part of our own language has been 
formed. The first sentence is as follows : — 

"Faegeji pojib ftip pynb anb gehat 
$e gebjiohcon anb up jiaecgab." 

" Faeger word this synd and gehat the gebrohton 
and us raecgath." 

This looks far enough from being our language, 
but the chief difference is in the different way of 
spelling the same word. And you will find several 

, words in this sentence that are the same with those 
we daily use. "And," "the," "this," "word," 
and " us," are all the same words we now use. 

■ They have not even changed their spelling for a 

I thousand years. And " faeger" is the word fair, 

I spelt in the Saxon way. 

i I must add one other thing in this note, which 
may serve to connect us more closely with the dim 
past which we are here studying. Not only the 

1 words we now speak, but some of our psalm tunes, 
7 



74 EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 

Thus at length an entrance was gained. 
The gospel was planted. The king had 
passed his word that they should not be 
molested. He, moreover, gave them the 
use of an old church that had in former 
ages been used by the Britons, before 
they had been conquered and driven awa\ 
by the Saxons. Into this church the) 
entered, and passed their time in preaching 
and praying, and singing their solemn 
chants. Their religion was not free from 
superstition; but it contained the great 
truths of the gospel, and was fitted tc 
move deeply the minds of the untutorec 
Saxons. After a time, King Ethelber 

may have been heard in the early worship of the 
converted Saxons. Gregory is regarded as the 
father of church music. He introduced many 
chants into the church service, some of which con- 
tinue to our day, and bear his name. Among these 
are Olmutz and Hamburg, the last of which is 
among the noblest and richest of all our church 
tunes. These tunes, then, and others which we 
possess of that age, may have been chanted by the 
first band of missionaries that sung the praises of 
God in the ears of our pagan forefathers. 



EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND, 75 

professed his faith in the new religion, and 
received baptism ; and his example was 
speedily followed by others, both nobles 
and common people. But to this subject 
we shall return at a future time. 

In this manner was the seed of Chris- 
tianity planted among that barbarous 
people. It was planted in weakness and 
fear; but it grew with that people's 
growth, till, at the end of many ages, it 
has become a mighty tree, that has spread 
wide its branches, and is scattering its 
healing leaves over all the earth. 



EARLT MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 



CHAPTER VI. 

The Saxons— Their origin — Their relation to the 
present nations of Europe— Their idols, worship 
and religious belief — Their courage, strength and 
ferocity. 

At the close of the fourth chapter, I 
stated that, when the Roman legions with- 
drew from the island of Britain, they left 
its native inhabitants exposed to barba 
rous nations, that were pressing them 
on various sides. From that time to the 
events recorded in the last chapter, about 
a hundred and fifty years elapsed; at the 
end of which period, we have seen that 
the Britons had been driven from their 
ancient homes, and their lands seized by 
a foreign people. It was to this people, 
the Saxons, the new conquerors of Britain, 
that the mission was sent from Rome. 
They had conquered the Britons by little 
and little, till, when Augustine came 
among them, they had driven the ancient 






EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 77 

inhabitants into the mountainous regions 
of the west and north, and had established 
seven Saxon kingdoms in the most fertile 
portion of the island. These people may 
properly be called the ancestors of the 
present English nation, and of those who 
now speak the English language. There 
are, no doubt, among the present English 
race, many who are descended from the 
ancient Britons ; and also many descended 
from the Normans, who came into Eng- 
land under William the Conqueror. But 
the great mass of the English race, at this 
day, have descended from those Saxons 
whom Augustine found in England when 
he entered the island to convert them to 
the Christian faith. We use, in a great 
measure, the language which they then 
used. It has been much changed in its 
form, but a great part of it is essentially 
the same. If you open the Bible and 
read the first verse of Genesis, " In the be- 
ginning God created the heavens and the 
earth," every word here, except "cre- 
ated," is a Saxon word. If you open 



78 EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 

and read the first four verses of the gospel 
of John, every word is Saxon ; if you read 
the first ten verses, every word is Saxon, 
except one : that word is "compre- 
hended," in the fifth verse. Thus, the 
words we use in conversation every hour, 
are the very words used by the Saxons 
a thousand years ago ; they are words 
which Augustine and his companions 
were obliged to learn, in order to converse 
directly with the people they came to 
convert. 

Again, many of the laws that exist 
among us at this day, have been handed 
down to us from the Saxons. Many of 
these laws have never been recorded; 
but, as they originated in early, barbarous 
times, when there was no writing, they 
have retained the authority of usage, and 
been handed down by tradition to this 
day. Commentaries have been written 
on them, and nations have been ruled by 
them, although the laws themselves were 
never written. Every thing which we 
call " common law" is of this kind. It is 









EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 79 

ancient and mighty, but not seen. It is 
obeyed, but not read. You now sleep 
safe by night, and travel safe by day, pro- 
tected by laws that were never written ; 
because they began before writing was 
known, and have reigned through all the 
ages since, being acknowledged by suc- 
cessive generations as the law of the land, 
and made known by the decisions of 
courts and judges. This common law 
prevails throughout the United States as 
well as in Great Britain, as the supreme 
law, excepting so far as it has been altered 
by special laws of the general or State 
governments. 

Many of the fables and tales of wonder 
told in the nursery at this day, have come 
down to us from the same source. They 
were once told by Saxon mothers to their 
infant children. 

Thus, in becoming acquainted with 
this people, we may not feel that we are 
among strangers, but among our own kin- 
dred of former times. The study of their 
history is, somewhat, as if we could enter 



80 EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 

the house where our great grand-parents 
lived and died, and where we might find 
still the furniture and the hundred me- 
morials of their lives, all so different from 
things now used, and yet once used by 
those of our own blood. 

The first thing, however, that meets us 
in the condition of the ancient Saxons is, 
their degraded moral condition. They 
were pagans, without the knowledge of 
God. They were destitute of the holy 
and benevolent spirit of the gospel. They 
knew not the way of salvation by a Sa- 
viour. Instead of trusting to the atone- 
ment he made, they sacrificed their ene- 
mies or their dependents to appease their 
gods. They bowed down in worship to 
idols of wood and stone; and in their 
lives they showed that they were with- 
out God in the world, and enslaved to 
the passions of the depraved heart. If 
we would know what blessings the gospel 
brought to them, we must make ourselves 
acquainted with their state, at the time 
Christianity was introduced among them. 



EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 81 

What remains to be said on the subject 
of this work, will come under three divi- 
sions. We will first survey the moral and 
social condition of the Saxons, at the time 
Christianity was introduced ; we will then 
look back over the hundred and fifty 
years, from the time the Roman legions 
departed till the coming of the mission- 
aries, and learn the story of the Saxon 
conquest of England ; and finally we will, 
from the same point of time, look forward 
to the progress of Christianity among the 
people, and the changes it wrought in 
their character and condition. 

First, the condition of the Saxons, at 
the time Christianity was introduced. 

In order to understand this, we must 
know their religion and their moral con- 
dition ; for out of this all else that is im- 
portant in a people's condition will be 
found to grow. 

The Saxons were one of a great num- 
ber of nations that, in ancient times, 
settled in the northern, interior and the 
western parts of Europe. These nations 



82 EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 

were all similar in their languages, laws 
and religion ; from them have descended 
the modern Germans, Dutch, English, 
Swedes, Danes, and a large portion of 
the French nation. The account I shall 
give, therefore, of the religion of the Sax- 
ons, will apply, in the main, to the ances- 
tors of all the great modern nations of 
Europe. 

The Saxons seem originally to have 
had some just ideas of a Supreme Being. 
This is evident from the name by which 
they called their deity, being the word 
"50b," which we use, and which with a 
very little variation we now pronounce 
"gord." In process of time, however, 
all that was consistent and pure in their 
belief, seems to have died away. As their 
lives became more and more depraved, 
their faith became corrupt. "Even as 
they did not like to retain God in their 
knowledge, God gave them over to a 
reprobate mind." He had revealed to 
them, as he has to all men, a knowledge 
of himself, in the creation around them. 



EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 83 

" The heavens declare the glory of God, 
and the firmament showeth his handy 
work." God had revealed himself to 
them in their consciences and hearts; 
"which show the work of the law written 
in their hearts ; their consciences also bear- 
ing them witness, and their thoughts the 
mean while accusing or else excusing one 
another." But, like all the heathen, this 
people had cast off the fear of God, and 
had been given up to degrading supersti 
tion. They believed in a God, but instead 
of regarding him as the creator of all 
things, they had come to believe him 
formed by the conflicting elements of cold 
and heat. The earth and heavens, instead 
of being made by God in the beginning, 
were, in their superstitious fancy, made 
from the body of a giant. The rocks 
were the giant's bones, the rivers and seas 
were his blood, the concave sky above 
was the hollow of his skull, and his brains 
made the clouds, and the giant was made 
from the frost and the heat. 

They believed in the immortality of the 



84 EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 

soul, and the eternal reward of the good 
and punishment of the wicked. But how 
corrupt had these great doctrines become 
in their minds! Who were the good? 
Not the morally pure, the just, the bene- 
volent ; but the brave in war ; those who 
were slain in battle. These were they 
who were to be received into heaven, to 
be brought near to God, and to enjoy the 
delights of Paradise. And what were 
these delights ? To sing the songs of vic- 
tory over their slaughtered foes, to feast 
and to drink from the skulls of the slain. 
And who were the wicked ? Not the re- 
vengeful ; not the selfish ; not the unjust ; 
not murderers, robbers, drunkards and 
liars. These were not wicked, but cow- 
ards. It was for cowards that the pains 
of hell were reserved. And all who were 
not ready to fight were, in their estima- 
tion, cowards. The peaceful, the for- 
giving, the mild and forbearing, were, in 
their view, cowards. Now, what must 
be the character formed under the influ- 
ence of such a religion as this ; when the 



EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 85 

Supreme Being is regarded as the patron 
of war and slaughter, and the noblest 
deeds are deeds of blood? Must we not 
expect it would be ferocious and revenge- 
ful ; utterly estranged from the pure and 
benevolent virtues of life ? Should you 
expect to find under such influences any 
thing like the life and spirit of Christ, or 
of any good and holy men ? Picture to 
your imagination the heaven of such a 
people ; their intemperate revelry, and 
barbarous triumph over slaughtered foes, 
when he was highest in favour with God 
in heaven who had shed most blood on 
earth. And then think of the heaven of 
the Bible, 

" Whose holy gates forever bar 
Pollution, sin and shame." 

Think of the heaven of the pagan Saxons 
as it has been described, and then of the 
Christian heaven as described by the apos- 
tle John : 

" And he showed me a pure river of 
water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding 
out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. 



86 EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 

In the midst of the street of it, and on 
either side of the river, was there the tree 
of life, which bare twelve manner of 
fruits, and yielded her fruit every month ; 
and the leaves of the tree were for the 
healing of the nations. And there shall 
be no more curse ; but the throne of God 
and of the Lamb shall be in it ; and his 
servants shall serve him. And there shall 
be no night there ; and they shall need no 
candle, neither light of the sun ; for the 
Lord God giveth them light, and they shall 
reign forever. Blessed are they that do 
his commandments, that they may have 
right to the tree of life, and may enter in 
through the gates into the city : for with- 
out are dogs, and sorcerers, and murder- 
ers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth 
and maketh a lie," 

As the Saxons lost the knowledge of 
the true God, they entertained a belief in 
a multitude of gods. Every great depart- 
ment of nature, they fancied, was under 
the care of some separate deity. The 
frost and the heat, the sun, moon, the 



EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 87 

thunder ; all these were deities. Besides 
these, there was Odin, or Wooden, a dei- 
fied hero, and Frigga, his wife. The 
names of some of these deities are pre- 
served in our days of the week : 

Sunnan daeg, or Sunday, is the Sun's day. 
Monan daeg, or Monday, is the Moon's day. 
Wodnes daeg, or Wednesday, is Wooden's day. 
Thunres daeg, or Thursday, is Thor's day, or the 
god of Thunder. 

Frige daeg, or Friday, is Frige's day. 

Another of their deities was Eostre. 
This goddess they worshipped in April, 
and hence this month was called Eostre- 
monath, or Eostremonth ; and this hea- 
then name is still retained to express the 
great festival observed by a part of the 
Christian church in commemoration of 
the Saviour's resurrection. As long as 
the festival of Easter shall be observed, 
so long shall we have perpetuated the 
name of one of the deities of our Saxon 
ancestors. 

Nothing is more conspicuous in this 
ancient false religion than the total ab- 



88 EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 

sence of a supreme overruling benevo- 
lence, causing all things to work together 
for the highest good. They seemed to 
have regarded, with terror, the mysterious, 
mighty powers that ruled the world; they 
had no faith that goodness would at last 
be triumphant, but believed rather that it 
would finally be crushed by the stern 
power of fate. This sad and despond- 
ing feeling in their religion is set forth in 
a striking manner in the fate of one of 
their deities, the benevolent god Balder. 
He is the son of Oden and Frigga; youth- 
ful, beautiful and benignant, the dispenser 
of kindness, the bringer of joy and bless- 
ings, who loves to dwell with men, and 
whom all men love. But he dies. All 
men mourn the loss of their friend, and 
search through the world for some remedy 
to restore him to life ; but in vain. Stern 
fate has taken him away to the dark 
realms of the dead, and he cannot come 
back. His wife Nanna, that she may not 
be separated from him, has voluntarily 
gone to dwell with him there. At last 



EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 89 

Frigga, his mother, sends a messenger to 
obtain his release. He leaps the gate of 
the gloomy world, sees Balder, and speaks 
with him ; but, no ! Balder cannot be re- 
leased. There he must remain, and his 
wife Nanna must dwell with him there 
forever. 

Some of the Christian fathers have 
fancied a great resemblance between this 
deity of the Saxons and our Saviour ; but 
without dwelling on this, we may remark 
the wide contrast in their destiny. For 
the benevolent deity of the Saxons there 
was no resurrection. 

The Saxons had many temples, and 
idols of silver, brass and stone. As the 
Christian religion progressed, the idols 
were cast away, and the temples demo- 
lished or converted to other uses. Of these 
one was so large that the army of Charle- 
magne was employed three days in rifling 
it of its treasures and demolishing the 
structure. Among their religious rites we 
must mention the same that prevailed 
among the Britons, the custom of human 
8* 



90 EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 

sacrifice. On certain days they offered 
human victims in sacrifice to their idols. 
On their return from war, they sacrificed 
one in ten of the captives they had taken, 
as a thank-offering for their success, and 
an expression of their triumph. Their 
God was not one who delighted in mercy; 
and his worshippers were as merciless 
and bloody as the deity they served. 

But as this nation advanced towards 
the times when the gospel was introduced 
among them, they became dissatisfied 
with their ancient superstitions and wor- 
ship. If they did not forsake the religion 
of their fathers, still there is proof that 
they were less zealous in it, and some of 
them quite remiss. They began to hold 
their ancient faith with a feebler grasp, 
even before the new light of Christianity 
had dawned on their shores. In proof of 
this state of things, I may quote the lan- 
guage of some who had begun to doubt 
respecting their own religion. Says a 
Saxon warrior, "I trust more to my 
strength and my arms than to Thor and 



EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 91 

Odin." Another says, "I believe not in 
images and demons. I have travelled 
over many places, and have met giants 
and monsters, but they never conquered 
me ; therefore, I trust to my own strength 
and courage." Says another, " I do not 
wish to revile the gods ; but Frigga seems 
to me to be of no importance. Neither 
she nor Odin is any thing to us." 

Thus will the misery that error brings 
cause men at length to doubt its truth, and 
prepare them to receive a better faith, 
Such was the posture of the Saxon mind 
at the time the gospel was first brought 
among them. There were, beyond a 
doubt, many among this people, who 
longed for a brighter day, but "died with- 
out the sight." Like the wise and holy 
men before our Saviour's time, who looked 
forward to the promised day of his com- 
ing, we may suppose there were many 
among our pagan forefathers, to whom 
their mythology seemed a mass of worth- 
less fables, and their revengeful and bloody 
worship an abomination. 



92 EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 



CHAPTER VII. 

The home of the Saxons before they came to Eng- 
land — Their manner of life — The state of the 
Britons — Divided, cowardly and unfit to defend 
themselves — The three Saxon vessels — The con- 
sequences — The Britons, Romans and Saxons 
compared. 

In this chapter I shall speak of the cha- 
racter of the Saxons as far as it was af- 
fected by their geographical position and 
their relation with other nations; and 
shall then give a brief account of their 
conquest of England. 

We have seen the warlike and ferocious 
character infused into the Saxons by their 
religion. Let us connect with this the 
fact that, in bodily form, they were the 
largest and strongest people of their time; 
and we shall be prepared to anticipate 
the career which history informs us they 
pursued. So proud were they of their 
forms and their descent that they were 







^pp 



-A J^AOAI^ SAXID^ CJHIJRife' . 



EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 93 

averse to marriages with other nations. 
What, then, should we expect this people 
to be, taking into view their moral daring 
and ferocity, and their physical strength ? 
Should we not expect that, in a barbarous 
age, such a people would be, if on land, 
robbers,— if on the sea, pirates? The 
Saxons, before they came to England, in- 
habited a small strip of sea-coast between 
the Eider and the Elbe, at the southern 
extremity of Denmark ; and three islands 
lying around the mouth of the Elbe. These 
islands have been in a considerable degree 
destroyed, since that time, by the violence 
of the sea. If you will here take a map, 
you may see their situation with regard to 
England ; and also the ready access these 
people would have to the whole coast of 
the Netherlands and France ; and still 
further down towards the south of Europe. 
On these islands and this sea-coast the 
Saxons took up their abode, as they 
roamed westward from the interior of 
Europe. Here they lived, a little by 
agriculture, partly by fishing, but mostly 



94 EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 

by piracy. Not having a very settled 
home, they had no great interest in keep- 
ing peace with their neighbours; and 
hence they made free to plunder all who 
were found within their reach ; and rob- 
bery became their trade. They had but to 
launch forth upon the sea, and steer either 
north or south, and an inhabited country 
with rich towns and cultivated fields lay 
exposed to their attacks. They cared not 
for the waves or storms. They were the 
most expert seamen known. Their ves- 
sels were made of wicker-work and co- 
vered with hides ; and in these light boats 
they would push out over the roughest sea. 
With bold hearts and strong arms they 
would make their way over the swelling 
waves, till some smooth harbour, locked 
in safety from the storm, with a smiling 
town lying around it, would invite them 
in; and then they would plunder the 
peaceful inhabitants, all the more easily, 
because they would not be expecting an 
attack from the sea in the time of a storm. 
In this manner they ravaged northward 



EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 95 

the coast of Denmark, and, southward, the 
coast of the Netherlands, of France, and 
Spain, and some authors assert, they even 
passed through the strait of Gibraltar and 
pillaged the coasts of the Mediterranean 
Sea. They became the pirates of the 
North Sea, and were the pest and scourge 
of that portion of the civilized world.. 
Hear the manner in which a writer of 
those times speaks of them. "You see/' 
says he, "as many piratical leaders as you 
behold rowers, for they all command, 
obey, teach and learn the art of pillage, 
Hence, after your greatest caution, greater 
care is requisite. The enemy is fiercer 
than any other ; if you be unguarded, 
they attack ; if prepared, they elude you. 
They despise the opposing, and destroy 
the unwary ; if they pursue, they over- 
take ; if they fly, they escape. Ship- 
wrecks discipline them, not deter; they 
do not merely know — they are familiar 
with all the dangers of the sea. A tem- 
pest gives them security and success, for 
it divests the meditated objects on land of 



96 EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 

the apprehension of an attack. In the 
midst of waves and threatening rocks they 
rejoice at their peril, because they hope to 
surprise." 

A church historian of these times says 
of their warlike habits, " They plundered 
by night, and, when day appeared, they 
concealed themselves in the woods, feast- 
ing on the booty they had gained." Sel- 
dom do the historians of these ages speak 
of this people without expressing their 
sense of their superiority over all other 
people in bravery, strength and daring. 

Leaving now these pirates of the North 
Sea for a while to their pursuits, we will 
cross over to the island of Britain. At 
the time the Roman armies finally left this 
island, you will remember the Britons 
were harassed by frequent incursions 
from their barbarous neighbours. The 
Picts and Scots broke over the wall which 
divided Scotland from England, and ra- 
vaged all the neighbouring country. The 
Irish crossed the channel from the west, 
and attacked them on that side. The 



EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 97 

Britons were in great distress. The Ro- 
man soldiers, whom they had always 
looked to, to protect them from foreigners, 
had departed. Their enemies were com- 
ing in on every side. But this was not 
the worst. The Britons were disunited. 
Instead of binding together all their 
strength to repel their common enemy, 
they were broken into factions and par- 
ties. The people of each district rallied 
around their own city and their own 
leader, leaving the sovereign of the whole 
island to defend the country as he could. 
Besides this, a mortal disease had broken 
out among the people, and was sweeping 
them off in great numbers. Thus three 
evils, barbarian invaders, pestilence and 
faction, were working mischief at the 
same time. 

In this state of things it happened that 
three Saxon vessels, such as I have de- 
scribed, arrived at the island of Thanet, 
near the mouth of the Thames. They 
were commanded by two brothers, named 
Hengist and Horsa, and contained per- 
9 



98 EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 

haps one hundred men each. These 
strangers did not seem to come with any 
hostile intention : they were too few in 
number to attempt any conquest, nor did 
they act a hostile part towards the inha- 
bitants. What their intentions were in 
coming is not known. They may have 
been driven across the sea in a storm, and 
have come to England for shelter; but, 
probably, whatever were the intentions 
with which they came, they would have 
showed their fondness for plunder before 
leaving the island. For the present, how- 
ever, their conduct was peaceful enough. 
At the time when these strangers ar- 
rived at Thanet, the British king Gwr- 
theyrn and his chiefs were assembled in 
council to devise measures of defence 
against their invaders; and hearing of 
these Saxons, it was proposed to employ 
them against the Picts and Scots- and Irish. 
True their numbers were not great, but 
they might still afford some aid against 
the enemy. So they were promised food 
and clothing, and were retained in the 



EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 99 

employment of the Britons. Better had it 
been for the Britons, — for the world it was 
doubtless best as it was, — but far better 
had it been for the Britons had they united 
and driven away these foreigners to their 
ships and into the sea. What they wanted 
was not Saxon help, nor any foreign help 
in the world, but union among themselves. 
Nor had they any reason to expect much 
good from strangers, until they had virtue 
enough to unite among themselves. What 
good would our fathers have derived from 
the aid of France in the Revolutionary 
war, if they had been divided into as 
many parties as there were States in the 
union ; if Pennsylvanians had pursued a 
Pennsylvania policy, and the people of 
New York a New York policy, and no- 
body been left to pursue a policy for the 
whole country ? The people might have 
fought for liberty, and France have helped 
them for seven times seven years, it 
would have been in vain. It is a wise 
saying that "Heaven helps those who 
help themselves;" and we shall find 



100 EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 

this exemplified in the history now be- 
fore us. 

The Saxons, as stated above, entered 
into the service of the Britons, and served 
them, it appears, faithfully and with suc- 
cess. They set out against the Picts and 
the Irish, and defeated them and drove 
them from the country. Thus the Britons 
felt relieved from their trouble, but they 
were not very effectually relieved, as we 
shall see. The Picts and Irish could come 
again, and the Britons had gained no 
strength; they had only learned to depend 
on others to defend them. Therefore 
Hengist and Horsa must stay, and it 
would be a good thing if they would send 
for some more of their countrymen to 
come over and help them. This Hengist 
and Horsa seemed quite willing to do. 
Thus a beginning was made ; and it was 
as when one letteth out water. You have 
heard something probably of the conquest 
of England, and may remember how 
those who first came over to help the 
people against the Picts and Scots and 



EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 101 

Irish, turned at last against the people 
they came to aid, and drove them from 
their possessions and claimed all the land 
as their own home. From the small be- 
ginning under Hengist and Horsa, they 
increased by hundreds and thousands; 
and the war at length came to be between 
the Saxons and the Britons; and in the 
course of it the Saxons gained over, as 
their allies, those very Picts and Scots 
whom they had first come over to expel. 

In six years after the Saxons first landed 
in Britain, Hengist had established an 
independent kingdom on the soil of Eng- 
land. These six years were occupied by 
three classes of events. First, the conquest 
of the Picts and Scots ; then, a season of 
peace and alliance with the Britons ; and, 
finally, a war with these latter, which ended 
in their conquest and expulsion. 

I have said that the Saxons came over in 
increasing numbers. At one time seven- 
teen vessels, and after these forty more, 
came over filled with men to reinforce the 
first adventurers. To support and pay 



102 EAKLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 

such large numbers must, in any case, have 
been burdensome to the Britons ; but, to 
make the matter worse, the Saxons grew 
more exorbitant in their demands, in pro- 
portion as their numbers increased. Hence 
coldness and distrust arose between them 
and the Britons, and this ere long led to 
open war. Then followed scenes of car- 
nage and desolation befitting the power 
and ferocity of the enraged Saxons. Public 
and private edifices were burned, priests 
were slain at the altars, and women and 
children in their homes. Some of the peo- 
ple fled to monasteries, some to the forests 
and mountains, and some to foreign lands. 

The name of Hengist carried terror 
wherever it was heard. After a series 
of battles, in which the Britons were 
always defeated, they are said at last to 
have fled from the Saxons as from fire. 
All resistance ceased. The kingdom of 
Hengist was established. 

I need not detail the repetition of simi- 
lar scenes, which followed in the further 
conquest of Britain. Suffice it to say that, 



EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 103 

in about one hundred and fifty years from 
their first entrance in England, the Saxons 
had established eight independent king- 
doms, and had expelled the Britons from 
all the fairest portions of the island. 

As we now look back over this series 
of years and battles to the first coming of 
the two brothers, Hengist and Horsa, who 
that was beholding that event would have 
supposed that those three ship-loads of 
wanderers were the germ of the greatest 
nation the world has seen. If a stran- 
ger, without knowing the events that 
were to follow, could have seen the in- 
vasion of England by the Saxons, and 
compared that with its invasion by the 
Romans, five hundred years, before, how 
different a result would he have predicted 
from what actually took place ! In com- 
parison with the ten thousand Roman sol- 
diers, armed and disciplined in the highest 
degree, commanded by the greatest gene- 
ral of the world, accustomed to conquer 
and give laws to all nations where they 
marched ; compared with this formidable 



104 EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 

array, how despicable would have ap- 
peared the invasion of England by a few 
hundred barbarous Saxons ! Yet the Ro- 
man power could not maintain itself in 
Britain more than a few hundred years ; 
while the Anglo-Saxon race have grown 
to be more powerful than the Romans 
ever were, and have not yet reached the 
extent of their greatness. Why was this ? 
It did not happen by chance. We may 
see in it, if we will study it, the hand of 
an almighty and righteous Providence. 
The Romans fought for tribute and 
power; the Saxons fought for a home, 
where they might settle and labour. Ty- 
ranny and oppression marked the progress 
of the Romans ; a spirit of independence 
and a love of liberty and free institutions 
have as obviously distinguished the Sax- 
ons. The sequel shows that when they 
had secured a settled home, they were as 
ready to improve their possessions as they 
had before been to fight. Not so with 
the Romans. It had been so once with 
them, and had it continued so, all would 



EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 105 

have been well. At the time they con- 
quered Britain, their soldiers did not fight 
for a home, but for pay and plunder ; and 
when they had conquered, they did not 
work. They had been brought up to 
fight, were trained to fight, were paid for 
fighting, and were good for nothing else. 
They had no country, and wished for 
none ; and when, after having grown old 
in war, they were disbanded, and settled 
on lands from which the peaceful owners 
were driven by the sword, they were 
hardly less mischievous than when they 
were in the army. We can hardly ima- 
gine a more despicable and odious set of 
wretches than the veterans of a Roman 
army, after they were disbanded. They 
were inveterate in idleness and brutality : 
ready for any public insurrection or pri- 
vate outrage. Such were the soldiers of 
the Roman armies in this age. Now, on 
such a nation the curse of heaven will 
rest. There is a canker at the root of their 
fairest prosperity. Their empire may ex- 
tend wide and astonish the world by its 



106 EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 

pomp and splendour ; but it is full of crime 
and injustice, and will at length crumble 
into ruins. 

Do you inquire why the Saxons should 
have conquered the Britons ? It was not 
that they were more numerous. They 
were far inferior in numbers; but you 
have seen how little of patriotism and 
public virtue there was among the Bri- 
tons, and how unfit they were to hold a 
place among the nations. They had not 
virtue enough to unite and depend on 
themselves for their defence. The Saxon 
race was, by nature, greatly their supe- 
riors. I have already spoken of their 
strength and courage, in proof of this fact. 
They were, moreover, much nearer to a 
civilized state, than were the Britons 
when the Romans first invaded them. 
The Saxons were not clothed in skins 
and painted blue. They wore garments 
of linen, adorned with trimmings of 
various colours ; an external coat or cloak, 
and shoes. This shows that they were 
far from being: in that barbarous state in 



EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 107 

which we found the early Britons. To 
these facts, I must here add one important 
trait in the Saxon character, which has 
done much to fit them for the part they 
are acting in the civilized world. I refer 
to the high station held among them by 
the female sex. With the Saxon race, 
woman has always been the equal of 
man ; his companion and friend, not his 
slave. In ancient times, this feeling arose 
to veneration, and almost to worship. 
The historian, Tacitus, in describing the 
Germans, who were of the same great 
family of tribes as the Saxons, says, " they 
regard woman as something divine." 
Thus, while these people were yet unci- 
vilized ; before their forests had ever been 
pierced by Roman armies; before the 
polished Greek literature had ever reached 
them ; they were cherishing in their un- 
tutored hearts this sentiment of love and 
reverence for woman, which was destined 
to place them on higher ground than Ro- 
mans or Greeks had ever occupied= The 
Greek or Roman woman lived in a state 



108 EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 

of great subjection, bordering on slavery. 
The men did not seek their best pleasures 
at home ; and nowhere were women on 
an equality with men. If the civilized 
and polished Greek entertained his friends 
at his house, his wife and daughters were 
kept away in another apartment. They 
were not permitted to go into company. 
In such a state of society the comforts and 
enjoyments of home are unknown. The 
social affections cannot be cherished, and 
hence the source of the purest earthly 
happiness is cut off. The family relation 
is the sacred nursery of virtue ; and where 
this is corrupt or defective, one of the 
most powerful means of the moral eleva- 
tion of a people is wanting. The Saxons 
brought this great element of modem 
civilization with them from their native 
forests. Such was, by nature, the race 
which the providence of God marked out 
to be the possessors of England ; strong 
and brave beyond all other nations ; bold 
and ferocious in war, but with a ferocity 
capable of being tamed into hardy endu- 



EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 109 

ranee and manly energy, and with the 
principles of justice and order already 
actively at work in them; without a 
home, yet ready to plant themselves fast 
on an island of the sea, and to make it, by 
their toil, the richest of all lands ; to till its 
soil, and explore its mountains for their 
hidden treasures of metal, and to send 
the results of their industry over all the 
world; sunk in pagan superstition, yet 
ready to cast away their idols and receive 
the gospel of Christ, and some of them for- 
saking the false religion of their fathers, 
even before the true light had dawned 
upon them; and finally, cherishing in 
their bosoms that respect for woman 
which, in later ages, has made the Eng- 
lish family and the English fireside the 
home of all that is truest and best on 
earth. Such was the Saxon race. On 
this strong wild olive of the forest was 
Christianity, in God's good time, to be 
grafted. 

10 



110 EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

The story of the mission resumed — The manner in 
which the missionaries laboured — Their slender 
means — Their books — The early Saxon meeting- 
house — The gradual growth of Christianity — Its 
influence on the Saxons. 

Such were the new inhabitants of Eng- 
land, at the time when Augustine and his 
companions came to preach to them the 
religion of Christ. We have seen in a 
preceding chapter the manner of their 
coming, and their first attempts and suc- 
cess in the execution of their mission. I 
might here resume that narrative, and 
describe the manner in which the Saxons 
gradually abandoned their pagan super- 
stitions and worship, and received the 
true religion : I might tell the names of 
the kings of Saxon nations, in the order 
in which they embraced Christianity ; the 
names of the successors of Augustine, and 
the external fortunes of the new religion 




AMCI1EWT IBIMTISM CMimCHES. 



EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. Ill 

in England. The recital, however, of 
the names of kings and bishops belonging 
to those early times, would have but 
little interest. As Augustine entered the 
field of his labours, he found that the 
Saxons were not the only people in the 
island ; nor was their pagan superstition 
the only false religion to be found there. 
As the missionaries travelled through the 
country, they might see altars and temples 
erected by the Romans ages before, in 
honour of Jupiter, or Mars, or some other 
of the Roman deities; they might find 
also the remains of rude Druidical tem- 
ples, raised by the ancient Britons long 
before Christianity was known in the 
island, and the remains of Christian 
churches built by the Britons after their 
conversion, and whose worshippers had 
now been driven far away by the vic- 
torious Saxons. There were, at this 
time, thousands of Christian Britons in the 
island, worshipping the same Saviour with 
Augustine, and who would gladly have 
formed a friendship with the missionaries, 



112 EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 

if circumstances had not prevented all hap- 
py intercourse between them. The Britons 
were the conquered and despised enemies 
of the Saxons, whose friendship Augustine 
was compelled to cultivate. Thus, these 
two bands of Christians seemed separated 
from each other by the unhappy condition 
of the country. 

As Augustine and his companions pur- 
sued their labours and gained gradually an 
influence over the Saxon rulers, his master, 
Gregory, did not forget the infant English 
church. He sent from time to time other 
missionaries from Rome to assist Augustine 
in his labours. He sent also such books 
as were possessed in that age, to furnish 
the missionaries the better for their work. 

Here let us again observe the great dif- 
ference between this early mission to the 
Saxons and the missions of modern times. 
A missionary society at this day sends out 
a mission press, which quickly prints a 
hundred thousand tracts, and they fall 
over all the land like leaves of autumn, and 
may be read by a hundred thousand fa- 



EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 113 

milies. But not so with the first mission 
to the Saxons. I have already said that 
they had neither books nor tracts ; there 
was not a printed book of any kind in all 
Europe, nor was there in the world a 
written book in the language of the people 
to whom the missionaries were going. 
Books were in those times written on 
skins, or on the papyrus, and were multi- 
plied by the slow process of writing. To 
obtain a copy of the Bible, it must be 
transcribed by the hand, which would 
occupy the best writer many months ; and 
thus a book, which a poor man can now 
purchase for the price of one day's work, 
would in those times cost the purchaser 
the earnings of a whole year. You will 
not suppose, then, that the possession of 
the Bible was common in those days even 
among Christians. The traveller might 
search day after day among the Christians 
of those times for a Bible, and perhaps 
would not find, in a whole province, a 
single Bible in the possession of a private 
man. The very material on which it was 
10* 



114 EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND, 

written would sometimes cost more money 
than an industrious poor man could save 
through the prime of his whole life. So 
costly were books in those days, that some- 
times a whole estate, with its ornamented 
grounds and beautiful buildings, was given 
for a single book. In the present day, 
among a hundred Christians there will be 
found a hundred Bibles, perhaps twenty 
commentaries, each containing ten times 
as much reading as the Bible. In those 
days, however, there would not be found 
among a hundred Christians a single Bible. 
One or two of the richest families might 
possess a copy of the Psalms, or of one 
of the epistles, purchased at great expense, 
or handed down in the family from gene- 
ration to generation, as an inheritance. 
Nay, the minister of a church, in many 
cases, did not possess a Bible. He might 
possess a part of one, and a part or the 
whole of one might be found in the church 
edifice, where it was kept as a sacred trea- 
sure, never to be carried out. If any 
Christian wished to know what that Bible 






EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 115 

contained, he could not borrow it, for it 
was never permitted to be taken from 
the church : he could not go to the church 
and read it, for that he was not permitted 
to do, and besides, it was usually in a 
language he could not understand. There 
it lay, — the sacred, mysterious book, — 
locked close in some recess of the church, 
or chained fast to the altar. The time 
had not come when its heavenly treasure 
should be unlocked, and spread broad-cast 
over all the earth; coming to the ignorant 
and poor as well as to the rich and great. 

Such were the times of which you have 
been reading ; and the facts I have stated 
may help you to understand better a 
catalogue of the books which were sent 
by Gregory to Augustine and his com- 
panions, to aid them in their work. The 
catalogue is as follows : — 

1st. A Bible, adorned with some leaves 
of purple and rose colour. 

2d. The Psalter, with the creed, Lord's 
Prayer and some Latin hymns. 

3d. Two copies of the Gospels. 



116 EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 

4th. A Psalter with hymns. 

5th. Stories of the Sufferings of the 
Apostles. 

6th. A Volume on the Martyrs. 

7th. An Exposition of the Gospels and 
Epistles. 

Some of these books were ornamented 
with gilding and precious stones. They 
formed the library of the new mission to 
England. These, with a few more, were 
all the books they had, and not a leaf of 
one of them could be given away. The 
missionaries must move the people by 
their preaching and by their example. 
Churches were erected according to the 
rude fashion of building among the Sax- 
ons. The walls were made of trees 
hewed away on both sides in the form of 
thick planks, and set up endwise and 
morticed into timbers at the bottom and 
the top. The spaces between the pieces 
were filled with mud. The side walls 
were about as high as a man's head. On 
these the timbers for the roof were placed, 
which met at the ridge in the usual man- 



EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 117 

ner. Within these homely walls were 
gathered the first Saxon converts. Here 
they listened to those instructions which 
the earnest piety and knowledge of their 
teachers enabled them to convey. They 
heard those strains of solemn music, some 
of which, I have said, have come down to 
our day. They witnessed the deep de- 
votion of these holy men ; they saw their 
separation from the world and its pur- 
suits, and the lessons they taught, under 
all the disadvantages I have named, sunk 
deep into the minds of the people. The 
God they were now taught to worship 
was not a god of war, but of justice and 
benevolence, and those who would gain 
his favour must be like him in character. 
As the religion of Christ began by purify- 
ing the heart, it purified all the actions 
that flow from the heart, like streams 
from a fountain. It introduced new and 
better laws into society, and improved 
those that were before in existence among 
them 5 it softened their ferocity ; it ele- 
vated and enlarged their affections and 



118 EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 

refined their manners. Christianity first 
made the Saxons acquainted with the 
great transactions o ages past, recorded 
in the Bible and in history. It awakened 
the desire of knowledge and laid the 
foundation for the education of the people. 
It was the Christian teachers of this peo- 
ple who first reduced their language to 
writing, and thus sowed the seeds of that 
literature which has now filled the world 
with books. 

While the religion of the gospel was 
renewing the heart, and expanding the 
intellect of the people, it exerted a cheer- 
ful and happy influence on all their inter- 
course and employments. It enforced 
the duty of industry, and thus disposed 
an unsettled and wandering people to 
settle down in permanent homes, to pos- 
sess the soil, and to till it with their own 
hands. At the same time it was the friend 
of the slave : it lightened his burdens, and 
raised him from the cruel vassalage under 
which he groaned to the condition of a 
free man. Religion taught the duty of 



EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 119 

justice and good offices towards other na- 
tions, the value of peace, the brotherhood 
of all mankind. The good fruits of the 
seed then sown were long indeed in 
coming to maturity; nor are they fully 
ripe even at this late day. 

But when we think of what England 
was in the days of Augustine, and of 
what she now is ; when we think of the 
great work to be done, and of how much 
has been achieved already; when we 
think of the lost condition of this people 
in their heathen state, and of the blessings 
brought on that land by the religion of 
Christ, surely we may say with the 
Psalmist, 
" He shall judge the poor of the people, 

He shall save the children of the needy, 

And shall break in pieces the oppressor. 

He shall come down like rain upon the mown 
grass, 

As showers that water the earth. 

Blessed be the Lord God ; the God of Israel, 

Who only doeth wondrous things; 

And blessed be his glorious name for ever and 
ever; 

And let the whole earth be filled with his glory." 



120 EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Caesar and Augustine compared — Their spirit; 
their work; the consequences — The destroyer; 
the planter. 

Having closed the account of the life 
and labours of Augustine, let us, before 
we leave this picture altogether, spend a 
little while in comparing the character and 
deeds of this man with those of another, 
who came to Britain at an earlier age, and 
whom the world unites in calling one of 
its heroes and great men. Let us com- 
pare Augustine with Julius Caesar. We 
will think of the manner and motives of 
their landing in Britain; their labours 
there, and the fruits that sprung from 
them. They both, Augustine and Caesar, 
went from the same city. In visiting Bri- 
tain, they both went among an unknown 
people; a people who had done them 
neither good nor harm ; a people with 
whose manners, character and laws they 
were unacquainted. Thus far their expe- 



EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 121 

ditions to Britain may be said to be alike. 
But here they divide ; the conqueror and 
the Christian. Caesar's was a mighty ex- 
pedition, covering the sea with ships, and 
glittering with weapons and ensigns of 
armed legions. Thousands of warriors 
waited on his command, with instruments 
of blood, to carry death among those peace- 
ful strangers ; those dwellers on a distant 
island, who had never injured the Ro- 
mans, nor interfered with the affairs of 
the great nations of the earth. The Ro- 
man legions went among this people, 
because they were a needy and weak peo- 
ple, but it was not to bless the needy or 
defend the weak. It was to slay every 
one who stood up to defend the soil and 
graves of his fathers. It was to burn the 
towns and houses of the Britons ; to carry 
their sons into slavery in foreign lands. 

Augustine, on the other hand, went de- 
fenceless, and almost alone. With no 
power to injure, he put his life in the 
hands of those to whom he went. Not 
one heart was filled with terror ; not one 
11 



122 EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 

dwelling with sorrow ; no son was carried 
into captivity ; no needy family were de- 
prived of their bread or their home, be- 
cause this stranger from Rome had come 
among them. The message he brought 
was " Glory to God, peace on earth, good 
will to men." He came to enlighten their 
minds, and to reform their lives ; to make 
the life of every one in the land more 
worthy and more valuable, to make every 
peaceful neighbourhood more peaceful, to 
raise the degraded and undo the heavy 
burdens of the oppressed. For Augustine, 
no earthly reward was reserved to sup- 
port him in the privations of his course. 
He was not, like Caesar, preparing for a 
triumph at Rome. He was not paving 
his way to wider conquest and dominion. 
His hope was that of doing good. His 
ambition was to rescue the heathen from 
the thraldom of sin. With Caesar, the 
conquest of Britain was one step in his 
march to the dominion of the civilized 
world. His throne was founded in blood. 
The desolation of provinces and nations 



EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 123 

marked his whole course. The fate of 
Britain was no more sad than the fate of 
Gaul, with its numerous tribes and na- 
tions. These all were desolated and sacri- 
ficed to secure the conqueror's triumph. 
Such is the cost of gratifying one unholy 
passion. If left to itself it will find no 
bounds, but would desolate the wide 
earth to gain its object. 

But let us look at the consequences of 
what was done by these two men, the 
conqueror and the Christian. The storm 
of war has passed away, and the wailing 
of the nations slain by the Roman sword 
has ceased ; and that mighty power itself, 
reared by crime, has crumbled to frag- 
ments and lies in ruins. It arrayed itself 
against justice and the eternal Providence 
that rules the world, and it could not last. 

But, behold the noiseless work of the 
Christian missionary. He sows the seed 
of God's truth deep in the hearts of a peo- 
ple and dies. Ages pass on \ and while 
the Roman power is crumbling, this new 
power rises higher and spreads wider, 



124 EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 

from age to age. It enlightened the dark 
savage mind; it stopped the thirst for 
blood ; it calmed the ferocity of the war- 
rior ; it delivered the slave from bondage, 
and raised him to enjoy the freedom of a 
man, and the privileges of a Christian. It 
has raised a band of uncivilized and fero- 
cious robbers to be the noblest and best 
nation on earth. Nor are its triumphs 
yet complete. The religion of Christ is 
now working wide and deep, more so 
than ever before, in the hearts of that 
same people, and so it will continue to do 
till the whole alienated world is brought 
back to God. 

If you would compare the works of 
Caesar and of Augustine, you may regard 
Caesar as a destroyer, trampling over the 
fair fields, crushing down the grain and 
grass, and burning the peaceful dwellings. 
What sudden and wide-spread havoc can 
a destroyer make ! What a mighty power 
does he seem to wield ! In a few days 
he ruins the labour of multitudes, and 
blasts the hope of years. But if you will 



EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 125 

watch this destroyer longer, you may see 
that his triumph is short ; and every thing 
works against him. The field he devas- 
tates to-day will be clothed with as green 
a verdure as ever, the next spring. An 
infinite power is at work that mocks his 
rage and bafiies all his mischief. Has he 
injured his fellow-men by demolishing the 
works of their industry, or destroying 
their liberty or lives ? The smouldering 
ashes of a house will not, indeed, grow up 
again into a beautiful palace; nor will 
time repair the injury done a fellow-crea- 
ture's liberty or life. Yet, even here, the 
destroyer has gained no triumph. Every 
act of wrong he has done, has planted the 
seeds of just indignation against him, in 
the minds of all men. The stones cry out 
against him. The very ruins he has made 
become witnesses against him ; and after 
his brief day is over, and his body is 
mingling with the dust, these silent me- 
morials of his crime utter their sentence 
of condemnation in the ear of all time. 
Such is the destroyer. His hope is ki- 
ll* 



126 EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 

deed " like the chaff that the wind driveth 
away." Such was Julius Csesar. 

If you would now turn your thoughts 
to Augustine, you may think of him not 
as a destroyer but as one who plants. 
No noise or pomp proclaims the planter's 
coming. He silently deposits the seed 
in the ground, and covers it quite out of 
sight. Nothing can seem less showy, or 
more unpromising of great results. Yet, 
there has indeed been a great work done ; 
great, because it is in harmony with all the 
universe. From that moment the power 
of God in earth, in ocean, and in air, all 
unite to protect and bring forward that 
planted seed. The earth rolls, the sun 
shines, winds blow and waters roar, va- 
pours rise and rains descend, all in favour 
of that plant. He that labours, whether 
for temporal or spiritual things, has the 
power of God above, beneath, and around 
him, working with him, and his work 
shall prosper. 

11 He shall be in league with the stones of the field; 
Yea, the beasts of the forest shall be at peace 
with him." 



EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 127 

This unseen, yet mighty power of God, 
working silently around and through all 
things in favour of the good man, carries 
him on over all difficulties, repairs all his 
losses, brings strength out of what seems 
defeat, and peace and joy out of disap- 
pointment, and crowns him with victory, 
when everlasting shame has covered the 
wicked. 



128 EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 



CHAPTER X. 

Saxon nations — Their jealousies, wars, massa- 
cres — Invasion of the Northmen — Their con- 
quests and cruelties — Alfred — The sad events of 
his early reign — His retirement from the throne— 
The dawn of a better day — His success, charac- 
ter, influence — Conclusion. 

After the Christian religion had been 
introduced into England, we must not 
suppose that its progress was immediately 
peaceful and rapid. Far otherwise. It 
has taken a thousand years to make the 
progress we see it has now made. At 
first this progress was extremely slow. 
The religion of Christ found the Saxons 
in a state of ferocious barbarism, and for 
ages it had to contend with the base and 
bloody habits of the people, and the vic- 
tory sometimes seemed to be doubtful. 

In order that we may understand what 
obstacles Christianity had to contend with 
in those ages, and the great blessings 



EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 129 

it brought, we should make ourselves 
acquainted with some of the events that 
happened in those times. The Saxons, 
it has been already stated, were divided 
into several distinct kingdoms. The num- 
ber of these varied at different times. At 
one time there were as many as eight. 
Their names were Sussex, Kent, Wessex, 
East Anglia, Bernicia, Essex, Deira, and 
Mercia. These kingdoms were often at 
war with each other. Instead of being 
bound together by ties of mutual friend- 
ship and good will, they were exasperated 
by jealousy, and constantly ready for 
war. Some of these kingdoms were in a 
wretched state of anarchy within their 
own bounds. Several chieftains contend- 
ed at once for the throne ; and thus, besides 
their enemies without, they had civil war 
within. One king was murdered and his 
throne seized by his rival, who in a few 
years himself shared the same fate. The 
second usurper is in time murdered, and 
then another and another ; and a line of 
kings, instead of being successful sove- 



130 PARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 

reigns, reigning each his day in peace, 
seems like a company of culprits coming 
on the stage only to be executed. War 
and murder was the general order of 
things ; peace the exception. 

In addition to this, the country began 
to be invaded by a new and formidable 
enemy. Swarms of northern invaders, 
from Sweden, Denmark, Norway and 
Russia, poured out from the straits of the 
Baltic and spread over all the eastern 
coast of England. These new pirates 
came to England in a similar manner as 
the Saxons had done ages before, but in 
far greater numbers. They were more 
fierce and cruel than ever the Saxons had 
been. Their numbers made them irre- 
sistible by the disunited forces of the 
English kings. Wherever they marched, 
towns and villages were wrapped in 
flames, the inhabitants murdered, trea- 
sures plundered, churches demolished, the 
harvests consumed, and the cattle driven 
away. The monasteries, where the libra- 
ries and the sacred treasures of the church 



EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 131 

were collected, where learning and piety- 
were enjoying a peaceful home and shed- 
ding their mild and blessed influence 
around, were plundered and burned by 
the savage invaders. Priests in their 
sacred robes were cut down in their cha- 
pels while engaged in prayer, and aged 
men and helpless women and children, 
who had thronged round the altar as a 
place of refuge, were butchered, and their 
blood mingled with the flames and ashes 
of the holy place. 

These were dark and dreadful times for 
the Saxons. And, what was worst of 
all, they did not for a long time learn 
wisdom from their calamities. They 
were still as jealous as ever. When their 
enemies Avere surrounding them on all 
sides, they did not unite. Each little na- 
tion hoped their neighbours would be the 
victims, and forgot that their own day of 
trouble would soon come. In this divided 
state several of the Saxon kingdoms were, 
one after another, conquered and disap- 
peared from the page of history. Yet for 



132 EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 

this afflicted people a time of deliverance 
was approaching. 

As we look back over the early ages 
of English history there is one name that 
shines bright and clear above all others. 
That name is Alfred. As we of these 
times look back upon it, it shines down 
on us through the intervening ages like 
the morning-star of England's power and 
glory. We are now drawing near to the 
times when this great man came upon the 
stage. Born and bred in times of trouble, 
when the power of his people was broken 
and hope had almost left them, it was 
given to him to deliver his country from 
her foes, and to lay broad and deep the 
foundations of peace, of order, of learn- 
ing and religion. His history will repay 
our careful study. It shows what great 
achievements may be aimed at and ac- 
complished by one man. It shows us that 
a man truly great is great in all circum- 
stances. Alfred was great in adversity 
and great in prosperity. He was great 
when, abandoned by all his friends, he 



EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 133 

sought refuge and concealment in a poor 
man's hut. He was great in battle and in 
victory ; and when his wars were ended, 
he did not, like the kings of his time, give 
himself up to luxury and idle pomp. 
Surrounded by ignorance and barbarism, 
his lofty spirit seemed to look forward to 
future ages, and he laid, in his own dark 
and confused times, the foundation of insti- 
tutions which it required successive gene- 
rations to complete. So great has been 
the influence of this king on the destiny 
of the English nation, even to the present 
day, that it would be wrong to close this 
sketch of Saxon history, without giving 
an outline of the life and character of the 
brightest of the race. 

Alfred was born in the year 849, when 
the northern invaders of his native coun- 
try had become numerous, and were 
making alarming progress throughout the 
island. He passed his youth in familiar 
acquaintance with the scenes of war and 
outrage that marked those sad times, but 
not without laying a foundation for future 
12 



134 EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 

eminence, by acquiring the best education 
of these early days. The following inci- 
dent illustrates the character of Alfred 
even in childhood. 

Though he had reached the age of 
twelve before he acquired an art then so 
rare as that of leading, he was delighted 
with listening to the Anglo-Saxon songs. 
Judith, holding in her hands a volume of 
these poems, in which the beautiful cha- 
racters pleased her husband's children, 
said to them, " I will give it to the one 
among you who first learns to read it." 
"Will you ?" eagerly asked Alfred, though 
the youngest. "Yes," said she, with a 
smile of pleasure. He suddenly snatched 
the volume out of her hands, and running 
to a school-master, in no long time read 
or recited it to her. 

As he grew up towards manhood, he 
saw the power of his own and the other 
Saxon nations becoming weaker, and the 
northern invaders increasing in numbers 
and strength. The death of his elder 
brothers brought him to the throne, at the 



EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 135 

early age of nineteen. But the throne he 
came to, might well seem, at that time, a 
"heritage of wo" rather than a blessing. 
When hardly grown to the stature of a 
man, he was summoned to take in his 
hands the helm of state, and guide it 
through the storm. His education seemed 
but poorly to fit him for this arduous task. 
He had travelled somewhat in foreign 
countries in his early youth, but his intel- 
lectual training was in a great degree ne- 
glected. He had indeed learned to read, 
which neither his older brothers, nor the 
noblemen who were his companions, were 
able to do. But what could he find to 
read ? His own language was the Saxon ; 
and there were, at that time, scarcely a 
handful of books written in the Saxon 
language. But he had done what he 
could ; and he was not to remain always 
shut up within this narrow field of 
knowledge. 

When Alfred first came to the throne, 
his own youth and inexperience, together 
with the weakened condition of his peo- 



136 EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 

pie, rendered him unable to contend with 
the powerful invaders. By a large sum 
of money he purchased a treaty of peace, 
which his enemies kept until they chose 
to break it, and no longer ; and when the 
young king gathered his forces, and put 
his kingdom to the hazard of a battle, his 
army was completely routed, many of his 
nobles were slain, and his strength so 
broken that he could make no more re- 
sistance. In this extremity he dismissed 
his followers, and himself fled and sought 
concealment and a temporary home in the 
cottage of a shepherd. What an utter 
reverse of fortune was here ! What a 
dark cloud seemed now to settle down 
over his prospects ! How could he hope 
ever to deliver his people from their ene- 
mies ! The stern events of destiny seemed 
to forbid his hopes and stifle all his efforts 
He seemed like Moses, whose first efforts 
to deliver his people from oppression had 
turned against him ; and he was obliged 
to flee and become a wanderer, even in 
his own land. Easily might Alfred have 




AlFRETD aid the HE jRH) SMARTS WIFE, 



EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 137 

given up all hope, and never again have 
risen to make a single effort. But God 
had given him a different spirit ; and was 
now, by these very troubles, training him 
for new efforts and better success. 

It was during Alfred's stay in the 
shepherd's house that an incident occurred 
which shows so well the humble condition 
to which the king was reduced, that it is 
never omitted in the narrative of his life. 
It happened one day, as Alfred was at 
work upon his bow and arrows near the 
fire, the shepherd's wife put down some 
bread before the fire to bake, and went 
about her work, requesting her guest to 
look after it. Before long, however, she 
came into the room, and seeing the bread 
smoking at an alarming rate, ran to save 
it, in no pleasant mood. u What, you lazy 
man, have you no eyes for any thing ? 
Can you not look after this bread at all 
that you see is burning up? You will be 
ready enough to eat it when it is done." 
This was not the style of address suited 
to a king ; but Alfred was not acting the 
12* 



138 EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 

king at this time. He was a dependent 
stranger. The story tells us that he took 
the rough rebuke in good part, and took 
better care of the bread afterwards. 

After the king had been in this retreat 
some months, his wife and family joined 
him. We know but few of the incidents 
that occurred during his residence in this 
obscure place. We may relate one, how- 
ever, which shows the kingly heart he 
possessed even in his oppressed condition. 
It happened one day as Alfred was read- 
ing, as was his custom when at leisure, 
a poor person knocked at the gate and 
begged for food. Alfred laid down his 
book, and called one of his attendants to 
give the beggar some food. The servant 
found only one loaf in their store, and that 
was not sufficient to furnish themselves 
with their next meal. The king, without 
knowing where his next supplies would 
be obtained, ordered his last loaf to be 
divided with the suppliant, whose need 
he thought as pressing as his own. 

After being in this situation about half 



EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 139 

a year, we are told, Alfred formed the 
bold resolution of going in person and 
visiting the camp of the enemy. He dis- 
guised himself as a harper, and as he was 
skilful in music, it was easy to pass him- 
self as a wandering musician. He made 
himself acceptable by his singing and 
playing, and in this way he entered the 
Danish camp unsuspected, and was ad- 
mitted even to the king's table. Here he 
learned all he wished to know respecting 
the condition of his enemies. He found 
them sunk in careless repose. Thinking 
the Saxons were totally conquered, they 
gave themselves up to luxury and idle- 
ness. Little did they think that the king 
they had driven from the field a few 
months before was then among them, and 
seeing all that was going on in their camp. 
For the king this was a critical moment. 
Had he possessed only ordinary strength 
and firmness of mind, such peril as he 
was then in would have overcome his 
discretion and betrayed him; or would 
have so overpowered his mind as to make 



140 EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 

his visit useless for the purpose of observa- 
tion. But Alfred could do several things 
at a time. He could sing and play to 
please the Danes, he could preserve a cool 
and steady appearance though alone 
among thousands of his enemies, and at 
the same time could see all he wished to 
know respecting them. His presence of 
mind did not forsake him. He accom- 
plished the object of his visit and returned 
in safety. He had seen the enemy, and 
his plan was formed. He sent an imme- 
diate summons to his friends and followers 
to assemble with arms, and while the 
Danes were thinking themselves secure 
from all attacks, he fell suddenly on them 
with such power that they were routed 
and compelled to make peace on Alfred's 
terms. This was the turning day in the 
king's fortunes. It reinstated him on his 
throne, and demolished the power of his 
enemies. They either left the country, or 
laid down their arms, and became peace- 
ful subjects. 

From this time till his death Alfred 



EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 141 

employed himself in plans and labours 
for improving the condition of his peo- 
ple. His sagacious mind seemed to grasp 
at once all their varied interests. He 
caused a fleet to be built for defence 
against foreign enemies, greatly improv- 
ing the size and forms of the vessels ; he 
constructed roads for the greater speed 
and convenience of travelling ; he divided 
England into counties, and appointed 
courts for the equal administration of jus- 
tice; he established schools and seminaries 
for the education of his people ; he made 
London the capital of his kingdom, and 
assembled there twice every year the 
principal men of the realm to deliberate 
on public affairs. The kingdom was 
blessed with peace. The troubles the 
people had passed through in former 
years had, like a furnace, melted them 
into one mass. The intestine quarrels 
between different petty kingdoms were 
at an end. The Saxons were henceforth 
one people. And when their old enemies, 
the Danes, approached the English shore, 



142 EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 

they were driven back by the fleets of 
Alfred. 

In the midst of this active and anxious 
public life, Alfred had found time for in- 
tellectual pursuits. He laboured diligently 
to improve the Saxon language, which 
was then in a rude state, and made him- 
self acquainted with the Latin, at the age 
of thirty-eight. He translated for the use 
of his people some portions of the Bible, 
and some books of philosophy, and was 
the composer of Saxon poetry — through- 
out his busy life resembling in this respect 
the illustrious monarch of Israel, who, 
amid the occupations of the camp and 
the court, composed those poems which 
still delight the reader in almost every 
language spoken on the earth. He invited 
learned men from all parts of Europe 
to make his kingdom their home. He 
extended his wise regard for his people's 
welfare to the minutest concerns. No 
useful invention in the mechanic arts was 
neglected ; no person who made a useful 
discovery or invention was suffered to go 



EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 143 

unrewarded. Commerce, agriculture and 
the arts, learning, peace, order, and re- 
ligion found in him a uniform and power- 
ful friend. In addition to all his public 
labours, Alfred, by a diligent and wise 
improvement of his time, accomplished 
more in study than many learned men 
who have made learning their one and 
only pursuit. He died in the year 901, 
in the fifty-third year of his age. He was 
pious, learned, virtuous, the father and the 
deliverer of his country. 

Such are a few outlines of the life and 
character of the man whom God raised 
up to perform the greatest work for Eng- 
land that has been done by any one who 
has sat upon her throne. Alfred found 
the nation barbarous and ignorant, divided 
at home, and broken by foreign oppres- 
sion. At the end of his toilsome reign 
he left them strong, united and at peace, 
with the seeds of order and improvement 
planted, and the foundation laid for most 
that England has since become. 

J must here bid adieu to my readers, 



144 EARLY MISSIONS TO ENGLAND. 

and leave them to enlarge from other 
books the knowledge that has been con- 
veyed in this. May the little I have 
written remind us of the debt we owe to 
the good men who laboured for us in ages 
past, and admonish us that we are. living 
for all the ages that are to come. 



THE END. 















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